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vi98 



Corona and Coronet 

BEING 

A NARRATIVE OF THE AMHERST ECLIPSE EXPEDITION 

TO JAPAN, IN MR. JAMES's SCHOONER-YACHT 

CORONET, TO OBSERVE THE SUN's 

TOTAL OBSCURATION 

9TH AUGUST, 1896 



BY 



^ 



MABEL LOOMIS TODD 

Author of " Total Eclipses of the Sttn,'''' etc., etc. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 




^^^^msm 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN' AND COMPANY 

(2tt)e Hijtiersitie '^n4i, CamBritige 



1/^820 



COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY MABEL LOOMIS TODD 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



i. %. 







«\ 







>"W0 COPIES RECE1VE0' 

2nd copy, 
1898. 




TO 

CAPTAIN AND MRS. ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES 

THIS STORY OF ONE 

CRUISE OF THE CORONET 

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 



PREFACE 



The expedition proper, sent out to observe 
the total eclipse of the sun in Japan on the 9th 
of August, 1896, through the liberality of Mr. D. 
Willis James and his son, owners of the schooner 
yacht Coronet, consisted of nine persons, — Cap- 
tain and Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James ; Professor 
and Mrs. David P. Todd ; Passed Assistant Engi- 
neer John Pemberton, U. S. Navy; Mr. Willard 
P. Gerrish of Harvard College Observatory; 
Vanderpoel Adriance, M. D., of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University ; 
Mr. Arthur W. Francis of New York ; and Mr. 
E. A. Thompson, mechanician, of Amherst. 

Certain aspects of this memorable trip have 
seemed worthy of narration, covering, as it did, 
more than ten thousand miles of sailing for 
our party, and at least forty-five thousand miles 
of deep sea voyaging for the Coronet. As an 
" unscientific account of a scientific expedition," 
it necessarily makes divers small branchings in 



vi PREFACE 

its course, like a sort of ornamental needlework 
much affected by our grandmothers. I have, as 
it were, feather-stitched my way to Yezo and 
back again. 

To avoid repetition, our friendly company are 
named on paper as they were often designated 
on board, — the Captain, the Professor or Astro- 
nomer, the Doctor, the Musician, and so on. Mr. 
Francis was apt to be addressed as General, 
largely because of his masterful management of 
expedition finances ; and Mr. Pemberton was 
known as Chief, having been many years chief 
engineer of the U. S. S. Monocacy while attached 
to our Asiatic squadron. During that time, he 
had in 1887 accompanied Professor Todd's ear- 
lier expedition to Shirakawa, in central Japan, 
where his assistance was peculiarly welcome. 

The narrative owes much to many friends, 
first and foremost to the owners of the Coronet 
for making the expedition possible ; to my hus- 
band for reducing to accuracy my attempts at 
describing the scientific phases of the trip ; and 
to all our fellow voyagers for drawings, photo- 
graphs, or material no less picturesque in its 
way. Of more than ordinary interest is the brief 
paper upon deep-sea sailing from the point of 
view of a practical and enthusiastic yachtsman, 
written by the younger of the Coronet's owners. 



PREFACE vii 

President Hill of the Great Northern Rail- 
way has put the whole expedition in his debt for 
the generous courtesy of transportation in his 
private car from Chicago to San Francisco. At 
the latter place Mr. Merrill and Mr. Wheeler 
were untiring in facilities accorded us, and their 
warehouses afforded most convenient headquar- 
ters for the expedition on the Pacific Coast. 

In Honolulu, obligation was constant to the 
hospitable friends who united in showing us the 
characteristic side of Hawaiian life, as well as to 
others who gave practical aid to the more serious 
side of our work ; especially to President Dole, 
and to Professor Alexander, surveyor general, 
and his assistants. 

In Japan a list of those through whose kind- 
ness the pathway of the expedition was made 
smooth, even luxurious, would comprise almost 
every one with whom we came in contact, from 
personal friends of various nationalities who 
entertained us, to the government officials who 
granted railroad passes, special steamers, and 
facilities otherwise impossible. Many pleasant 
and essential favors were obtained through the 
friendliness of Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Kabayama ; 
and of Mr. Herod, then charge d'affaires of our 
legation at Tokyo. Also the governor of Hok- 
kaido and the mayor of Esashi exerted them- 
selves most courteously in our behalf. 



viii PREFACE 

Without the intelligent services of Mr. Oshima 
and Mr. Murakami, both teachers in government 
colleges, ease of communication in remote local- 
ities would not have been attainable; and to 
Professor Burton and Mr. Ogawa warm thanks 
are due for fine views of the Ainu and northern 
Yezo. 

I must not omit mention of the kindly assist- 
ance in many technicalities, Hawaiian and Jap- 
anese, given me by Mrs. Frances Carter Crehore, 
formerly of Honolulu, and by Miss Ume Tsuda, of 
the Peeresses' School in Tokyo. Also the editors 
of "The Nation," "The Century Magazine," 
"The Atlantic Monthly," "The Independent," 
and " The Outlook," have kindly given permis- 
sion to reprint my articles originally published 
in their magazines. 

r^' M. L. T. 

I Observatory House, 
I Amherst, October^ 1898. 



CONTENTS 



Introductory 
Deep-Sea Yachting by A. C. James 
I. The Coronet 
II. Preparation .... 

III. Overland .... 

IV. Sausalito .... 
v. Fifteen Days at Sea 

VI. Life in Honolulu 
VII. Hawaiian Volcanoes 
VIII. A Hawaiian Journey . 

IX. KiLAUEA .... 

X. A Poi Luncheon . 

XL With Kate Field . 

XII. A Mid-Pacific College 

XIII. The Lepers of Molokai . 

XIV. Four Weeks at Sea . 
XV. Japan Revisited 

XVI. Departure of the Expedition . 

XVII. In Familiar Haunts 

XVIII. Southward 

XIX. Gifu and the Cormorant Fishing 

XX. Kyoto 

XXL Nara 

XXII. Yachting in the Inland Sea . 

XXIII. Expedition Experiences . 



PAGB 

xiii 

. xxiii 

I 

8 

14 

. 24 

30 

. 42 

58 
. 68 

78 
. 88 

97 
. 104 

III 
. 125 

139 

• 155 
172 

. 181 
188 

• 194 
209 

. 216 
229 



X CONTENTS 

XXIV. The Tidal Wave ...... 241 

XXV. In Pursuit of a Shadow . . . 254 

XXVI. Still Pursuing . . . . . . 264 

XXVII. ESASHI IN KiTAMI 272 

XXVIII. In Ainu Land 292 

XXIX. The Eclipse 318 

XXX. A Native Celebration .... 327 

XXXI. Voyage on a French Cruiser . . 336 

XXXII. Homeward Bound 343 

XXXIII. Back to an Arizona Copper Mine . 357 

Index 377 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Mr. James's Schooner Yacht Coronet Frontispiece. 

Expedition Headquarters at Esashi . . Facing lo 

The Rotary Snow-Plough at Wellington . . 20 

Expedition Work on Board 36 

Residence of President Dole in Honolulu . 50 

Hawaiian Village Landing-Place .... 64 

Sulphur Blow-Hole in the Crater of Kilauea 80 

Kate Field 98 

Cottage in Dr. McGrew's Grounds where Miss 

Field died 102 

BoKi, Ruler of Oahu in 1820, and Liliha his Wife 104 

Captain and Owner of the Coronet . . . 134 
Map of Japan showing Track of Total Solar 

Eclipse 158 

The Coronet dressed for the Fourth of July, 

Yokohama Harbor, the Olympia at the right 180 

A "Float" in Matsuri Procession at Kyoto . 206 
Stone Lanterns and Cryptomerias at Nara . .212 

Temple at Nara 214 

View on the Railway near Morioka . . . 230 

Landing the Emperor's Portrait at Esashi . 238 
The Great Tidal Wave as portrayed in a Native 

Magazine 248 

Ainu Couple, the Woman wearing Ceremonial 

Beads 260 

A Typical Ainu 268 

The Electric Commutator 278 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Japanese Carpenter making Plate-Holders at 

Eclipse Station 280 

Fanciful Lamp-Post and Native Inn at 'E^k^yh facing 282 
Ainu holding Mustache-Lifter, about to drink 

Sake 290 

Old Ainu Chieftain 300 

Ainu Woman carrying Child and Burden . . 304 
Articles gathered in Ainu Houses . . . 312 
Lighthouse on the Beach at Esashi (from a Draw- 
ing by Mr. Thompson) 322 

Expedition Members, and Old Schoolhouse, after 

THE Eclipse 324 

A "Hairy Ainu" 340 

Route of the Expedition, and Coronet's Course 354 

Ainu Woman weaving Elm-Fibre into Cloth . 360 

Articles of Ainu Manufacture 374 



INTRODUCTORY 



Chasing eclipses, always of interest in itself 
whether the eclipse be caught or not, yields great 
wealth to science when these elusive phenomena 
are properly overtaken. 

Sun and moon are of apparently the same size, 
and by a happy working of the celestial mechan- 
ism the moon sometimes comes directly between 
us and our central luminary, causing a total 
eclipse of the sun. But this happy state of 
things can by no means last longer than eight 
minutes. Usually in far less time sun and moon 
seem to slip past one another, and though for 
two hours or more the partial phases may con- 
tinue, the duration of entire darkness is, on an 
average, not much over three minutes. 

The astronomer wishes totality could last 
three hours or three months, that by the benefi- 
cent shielding of the sun's intense brightness he 
might have an opportunity of studying without 
interruption that most beautiful and mysterious 
sight in nature, — the outflashing radiance of 
the corona. 



INTRO D UCTOR Y 



This spectacle, so impressive as hardly to ad- 
mit of description, has, thus far in the history of 
science, been visible only during a total eclipse. 
Possibly in part an atmosphere of the sun, hold- 
ing the secret of solar constitution and energy, 
what wonder that the enthusiastic specialist 
longs to interrogate its reticent streamers until 
hidden things shall come forth to his questioning 
telescope and camera. If a permanent eclipse 
would only disclose coronal secrets, any serious 
interference with mundane matters would give 
him small concern. 

By a series of saddening calculations, based 
upon the number of eclipses in a century, the 
length of total phase, probability of cloud, and 
average number of observers and telescopes 
likely to address specific questions to the sun 
at the time of his temporary retirement ; consid- 
ering, too, the fondness of eclipse tracks for 
oceans, deserts, tropic marshes, impassable for- 
ests, and other localities where no civilized hu- 
man being, not even an astronomer, can follow, 
the ardent pursuer reaches depressing conclu- 
sions. A miserly century, despite its seventy 
total eclipses of the sun, allows only about one 
solid day's watching of the corona. Very natu- 
ral, then, the impatience to follow, if this fasci- 
nating shadow beckons toward regions even 



INTRODUCTORY 



remotely accessible ; and no less the desire to 
invent something whereby the precious three 
minutes, rich with tantalizing stores of coronal 
wealth, may virtually be lengthened many fold. 
To accomplish this end was mainly the object of 
our Amherst expedition. 

Those who follow in the train of an astrono- 
mer, belonging strictly to his family, scarcely 
know, amid a multitude of original diversions, 
where to find themselves from day to day, in an 
existence successfully robbed of monotony. Not 
only does he rise at all hours after midnight and 
remain awake at all hours before ; not only does 
he fill the house with developed and undeveloped 
photographic plates of stars and meteors, ghostly 
nebulae and flying comets, as well as sketches of 
sun-spots and blue prints of strange apparatus ; 
not only do piles of student examination papers, 
covered with frenzied diagrams, hide beneath 
apparently innocent magazines ; and proof-sheets 
of forthcoming volumes lie in wait in every 
drawer ; but one should never be amazed to meet 
the Professor himself at a moment's notice in 
any portion of the globe. 

Eclipse shadows rarely fall upon him comfort- 
ably ensconced in his home observatory. Should 
he experience the good fortune of witnessing a 
single one from his domestic dome, about three 



INTRODUCTORY 



hundred and fifty years must elapse before an- 
other would pass that way. Eclipse astronomers 
are necessarily cosmopolitan. 

But, apparently erratic, these paths of dark- 
ness, like all celestial movements, are subject to 
definite law, only of such immense scope that 
one generation is not long enough to observe an 
appreciable fraction of its operation. In a single 
astronomer's lifetime, eclipse tracks may seem to 
obey their own sweet will, — falling, for instance, 
in his youth upon France (1842) and Sweden 
(185 1), crossing Peru (1858), Spain and the Paci- 
fic coast of North America (i860) in his man- 
hood ; if still enthusiastic he would have gone to 
the Malay peninsula (1868), even extending his 
research to the great American eclipse (1878) ; 
had he begun at an especially tender age with 
the French eclipse, he might have retained eye- 
sight and energy enough to journey to Egypt 
for a glimpse of its traditional darkness (1882). 
Here is variety of locality enough to confuse all 
theories of eclipse visitation based upon individ- 
ual experience. Unhappily he cannot seek far- 
ther transits of Venus, because the next one 
occurs A. D. 2004, a date somewhat in advance 
of even the most hopeful astronomer who has 
the misfortune of being already alive. But 
eclipses and other spectacles in the firmament 



INTRODUCTORY 



generally deny their beauties and revelations to 
strictly civilized centres. And so, although here 
to-day, he is to-morrow on the high road or the 
high seas, bound for Alaska or Pike's Peak, 
West Africa or the Marquesas Islands, Egypt or 
Chile. He speaks of these somewhat unusual 
localities with a familiarity not known to the 
tourist, and born of close acquaintance and supe- 
rior companionship. He casually mentions resi- 
dence for a time in Nova Zembla or Vladivostok 
as too much a matter of course even for comment. 
Truly, intimacy with immeasurable stretches of 
infinite space induces a just estimate of the 
meagre dimensions of our own planet, where few 
regions are impossibly remote or forbidding, if 
only some celestial performance be visible from 
their all but inaccessible wastes. 

Rarely were such expeditions undertaken until 
the middle of the present century, and it was 
not many years ago that " darkening of the sun 
at noonday" meant unreasoning terror, even de- 
spair, to all beholders. Even now, in parts of 
China and India, superstitious ceremonies are 
performed while the "great monster" calmly de- 
vours the friendly sun. In Japan, until recently, 
ignorant peasants covered their wells during 
eclipses to prevent poison from falling into them 
from the sky. 



INTRO D UCTOR Y 



If, in olden time, an eclipse occurred within 
convenient distance, astronomers observed the 
time of beginning and ending, sometimes not- 
ing the fact that a pale halo of light seemed to 
encircle the dark body of the moon. That this 
corona had definite structure, or that it offered 
important problems, apparently never occurred 
to early observers. Scientific study of the corona 
and of the sun's constitution has been wholly 
contained in the last sixty years, the significance 
of total eclipses of the sun being a purely mod- 
ern recognition. 

Although invented in 1839, photography was 
first successfully applied to a total eclipse of the 
sun in 185 1 at Konigsberg, securing a fine re- 
cord, not only of the wonderful red prominences 
which burst forth at totality, but of the myste- 
rious radiance of the ethereal corona. Hence- 
forward, advance in this method of observation 
was rapid, and in 1868 Janssen in India, after the 
longest eclipse ever observed (about five minutes 
and a half), announced the epoch-making discov- 
ery, that the protuberances can be studied by 
the spectroscope without an eclipse, — that is, in 
full sunlight. Yet the character of the blood-red 
jets is not in all respects the same as when the 
moon's dark body makes the screen, so that ne- 
cessity for continued research upon them during 



INTRODUCTORY 



eclipses still remains. But no triumphant ob- 
server has yet reported success in seeing the 
corona without an eclipse, though many trials 
with highly sensitive instruments have been 
made. Future years may bring, too, this longed- 
for achievement. 

Prior to i860 it was not even certain that the 
corona belonged to the sun at all. The outer 
streamers, sometimes extending ten or eleven 
million miles into space, were discovered by 
Professor Langley in 1878, from the summit of 
Pike's Peak. A material found in the corona by 
Professor Young in 1869 was named '* coronium," 
being unlike anything known upon earth ; and 
his marvelous " reversing layer " — when for a 
second or two before totality all the dark lines 
in the spectrum suddenly flash forth in great 
brilliance (seen for the first time in Spain in 
1870, and confirmed in 1874 at Cape Colony) 
— was photographed during the eclipse of 1896 
by Sir Baden Powell's party in Nova Zembla, 
and abundantly verified in India two years 
later. 

Thus, bit by bit, our stores of knowledge of 
the corona accumulate. Finely equipped expedi- 
tions to follow the fleeting pathway of shadow 
are in our day constantly sent out, often by gov- 
ernment, and the leading nations of the world 



INTRODUCTORY 



vie with one another in the amount of valuable 
material gathered by their astronomers. 

Questions of probable cloud are, of course, 
very important. As the shadow will fall over 
localities known many years in advance, observa- 
tions of prevailing sky conditions are possible 
during several seasons beforehand all along the 
track of anticipated darkness, and from a com- 
parison of them, regions least cloudy can be 
chosen. 

Selecting the site for an observing station 
involves great, almost terrifying, responsibility. 
Of four or five available places, one may prove 
clear and the others cloudy on the fateful day ; 
or one may be overcast while the remainder re- 
joice in brightest weather. And the wrong one 
may have been chosen. 

Aggregation of many observers in one region 
is less desirable, scientifically considered, than 
various parties scattered along its line ; for possi- 
bilities of cloud-interference are less, and it is de- 
sirable also to know whether the corona during a 
single eclipse presents exactly the same features 
to eyes hundreds of miles apart. In other words, 
whether or not it may change in two or three 
hours. As the track is ordinarily many thousand 
miles in length, this scattering of observers along 
the land-line is by no means impracticable. 



INTRODUCTORY 



The eclipse of 1896 offered a variety of oppor- 
tunities. Beginning in Norway, the track lay 
across frozen Nova Zembla, through Siberia and 
the Amur River region ; thence crossing the Sea 
of Japan it traversed the Hokkaido, or northern 
islands of the Japanese Empire, losing itself at 
last in the Pacific Ocean. 

Norway dismissed from consideration as our 
goal because several other parties of observers 
had planned to locate there, Nova Zembla was 
investigated ; but the eclipse not occurring until 
the ninth of August, and the Coronet having no 
steam, it was deemed inexpedient to remain so 
late in the far north. The prospect of a possible 
winter ice-bound in an Arctic harbor was not 
sufficiently alluring to risk the reality. 

For three years, at Professor Todd's request, 
meteorological observations had been made in 
Japan, throughout the region of coming eclipse ; 
and Yezo, the largest northern island, was made 
the destination of the Amherst Eclipse Expedi- 
tion. 

In October, 1895, plans were laid, instruments 
and their mountings begun, and the Coronet was 
preparing for her long voyage around the Horn. 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 

BY ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES 

To the yachtsman truly interested in his 
hobby, who enjoys a home on the rolling deep 
for its own sake, deep-sea cruising affords a wider 
scope and more perfect enjoyment than can possi- 
bly be obtained from short trips on inland waters. 

The coast of Maine and the waters of Long 
Island Sound are unsurpassed anywhere in the 
world as headquarters for Corinthian sailors, but 
it is not until " Farewell " has been taken and 
the first course set for a distant port, that the 
true lover of the sea begins to feel the exhilara- 
tion of life on the ocean wave. Newspapers are 
not wanted. Telegrams are impossible. Worry 
is left behind, and the yachtsman enters upon an 
indefinite period of perfect contentment. Details 
of managing the vessel, the study and practice 
of navigation and seamanship, even settling the 
quarrels of sailors and cooks, are simply pleasant 
pastimes. Events which on shore would cause 
endless annoyance and trouble, at sea mean 
simply more work and wider experience. Storms, 
fog, accidents, are to the sailor only incidents, 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



and every new difficulty arising suggests a way 
to meet it. 

The yachtsman who is able to do so should 
command his ship at all times, and particularly 
on a long ocean voyage. He will find more 
opportunities to improve his navigation and to 
develop seamanlike qualities in one month at sea 
than in three years' regular yachting near home. 
He should be thoroughly familiar with every 
department of his ship, and by so doing he may 
rest assured that time, even on the longest voy- 
age, will not hang heavily on his hands. 

Probably every one who has been to sea has a 
different theory as to the best class of yacht for 
a long ocean voyage. Designers have given us 
everything, from the immense floating steel shell 
inclosing five thousand horse-power, to the able 
little pilot boats remodeled with all the comforts 
of a yacht. The Coronet is practically of the 
latter class. Built in 1885, of one hundred and 
fifty - two tons net register, one hundred and 
thirty-three feet over all, twenty-seven feet beam 
and twelve and one half feet draught, she has 
since that time covered a greater number of 
miles than any other American yacht. Her 
career was opened, and her first reputation made, 
by defeating the famous schooner yacht Daunt- 
less in a midwinter race from New York to 
Queenstown. Shortly after, she rounded Cape 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



Horn during the worst season of the year, mak- 
ing the voyage from New York to San Francisco 
in one hundred and five days. Her trip around 
the world, completed in thirteen months, was 
followed by four trips to Europe, and two to the 
West Indies. 

The completion of the Japan trip has added 
forty-five thousand miles to her record. During 
her whole history, she has never lost so much as 
a bucket from her decks, nor met with any seri- 
ous mishap. From my experience on the Coro- 
net, I should not know how to improve upon her 
for a strictly sailing deep-sea cruising yacht, dry 
and comfortable in all weathers, and able to keep 
the sea and make passages with almost a steam- 
er's regularity. 

There is an old sailors' maxim that " they who 
go down to the sea in ships behold the wonders 
of the deep, but they who go down to the sea 
in schooners see Hell," and without doubt this 
saying has considerable foundation in fact. For 
running before a light wind in a heavy following 
sea, the long main boom of a large schooner 
yacht is certainly a dangerous companion ; and 
should it break loose, it would be likely to take 
charge of the deck, and almost certainly cause 
serious damage. For ocean work a squaresail 
is an absolute necessity, for then the foresail and 
squaresail can be set and the mainsail taken in 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



when running. The squaresail yard also gives 
scope to one's ingenuity in planning additional 
skysails and other forms of balloon canvas. The 
utility of this rig was soon discovered after sail- 
ing from San Francisco. 

The coast of California is by no means an 
attractive place for yachting. The glorious cli- 
mate for which the state is so renowned confines 
itself strictly to the land, while at sea fogs, gales, 
and calms alternate with surprising regularity. 

It was without much regret that we left our 
anchorage in San Francisco Bay, and headed the 
Coronet for the Hawaiian Islands. The San 
Francisco bar demanded tribute from most of 
the party, but at length farewell was taken at the 
Farallones, and the trip to Japan fairly started. 
The first week's run was the poorest in the his- 
tory of the vessel, averaging only one hundred 
miles a day ; but after finding the trade winds in 
latitude 27° N., the Coronet seemed ashamed of 
herself, and made two hundred and fifty miles 
daily in the effort to retrieve her reputation. A 
considerable part of the distance was covered 
without aid of the mainsail, under foresail and 
squaresail. 

The evening of the fifteenth day found us 
safely anchored in the snug little harbor of Hon- 
olulu. It is not the province of this chapter to 
describe the beauties of the Islands, nor to dwell 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



on the delights of a visit to what has been well 
named the "Paradise of the Pacific," and could 
with equal truth be called the Paradise of the 
World. Even after extended acquaintance with 
the undeniable and oft described charms of ** Pic- 
turesque and Progressive Japan," it is enough to 
say that our stay in the Islands was the most 
delightful of the entire trip ; and it was the unani- 
mous hope that the mother country might become 
better acquainted, and more closely united to our 
countrymen of the Hawaiian Republic. 

To the yachtsman, the islands of the Pacific 
lying north and south of the equator afford an 
inexhaustible field for most delightful cruises. 
From the latitude of Honolulu south to Pitcairn 
and stretching across the Pacific to Australia, 
are thousands of islands, many of them inhabited 
by curious and interesting races. 

Yachtsmen have been criticised, and in some 
cases justly, for using their magnificent fleet of 
vessels as mere toys. What an assistance they 
might be in advancing our knowledge of geogra- 
phy, if their pleasure trips could be turned to 
some practical account ! With plenty of time, 
which is of course essential to a thorough enjoy- 
ment of any cruise, and with a properly equipped 
yacht at one's command, I know of no part of 
the world which would better repay a visit, or 
which could yield more valuable results in ex- 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



tending geographical and commercial knowledge, 
presenting, as it does, so wide and unexplored a 
field for scientific research. 

Our knowledge of the islands of the Pacific is 
at best exceedingly meagre, and there is cer- 
tainly no class of men better fitted, either by edu- 
cation or equipment, to cooperate with the navy 
in adding to our store of information than the 
yachtsmen of the United States. 

The object of the expedition made it impossi- 
ble for us to linger long in Honolulu, and inad- 
visable to make any other stop ; but if the fates 
favor, the Coronet may before long again be 
headed for "The Paradise of the Pacific" and 
the islands of the southern seas. 

There is no need of waiting for a fair wind or 
favorable weather to start on a cruise from the 
Islands. The trade winds are practically always 
fair, and the sailor need seldom look for anything'' 
more terrible than a rain squall to interfere with 
his plans. 

The afternoon of the 25th of May found the 
Coronet again in her element, out of sight of 
land, with boats lashed securely on deck and 
everything snug below and aloft ; prepared for 
anything which might be in store for her on the 
four thousand miles of sea that must be covered 
before reaching Yokohama. The sailing course 
from Honolulu to Japan is considerably longer 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



than that followed by the steamers, but the time 
at sea might have been doubled and still no one 
would have objected, so delightful was the entire 
trip. In order to hold the trade winds, we kept 
between the parallels of i8° and 20° north lati- 
tude almost the entire distance ; and so perfect 
summer weather was assured. Day after day 
the awning was set on the quarterdeck and the 
yacht kept on her way with scarcely more mo- 
tion than would be experienced in Long Island 
Sound. The long Pacific rollers lazily following, 
and even the flocks of goonies slowly circling 
astern, seemed to express the spirit of the trop- 
ics and bid us enjoy southern seas to the utmost. 
Although not strong, the trades were almost ab- 
solutely steady, and gave us an average of about 
one hundred and fifty miles a day for the trip. 

During the typhoon season the coast of Japan 
is not a particularly inviting place for vessels of 
any class, and when our log showed that we 
were about two hundred miles from Yokohama, 
the barometer beginning to fall rapidly with 
constantly increasing wind and a heavy sea, we 
thought it time to prepare for a warm reception 
to the country. Evidently we were on the edge 
of a revolving storm, the centre of which ap-, 
peared to be traveling rapidly along the coast. 
Under short sail the Coronet was kept on her 
course until nightfall, but the constantly and 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



rapidly falling barometer warned us that it would 
be unwise to attempt to approach land until the 
disturbance had passed. A storm at sea may be 
a grand sight, but a little of it goes a long way, 
and the grandeur of the fury of the elements did 
not compensate for the prospect of being hove to 
for three or four days within a hundred and fifty 
miles of port. During the middle watch the 
gale moderated, and at dawn we were able again 
to make our course. The passing of the storm, 
however, had left behind it a very heavy sea 
which delayed our progress, and it was nearly 
midnight of Sunday, the 21st of June, when the 
light on Mila Head which marks the entrance of 
Yeddo Bay was sighted. 

Yokohama pilots are an unknown quantity. 
No response came to our repeated signals, and 
we were obliged to navigate the channel unaided. 
During the night we had our first introduction to 
the methods of navigation employed by Japanese 
fishermen. They sail their unwieldy junks with- 
out lights and without the slightest regard for 
the "rules of the road." Their immense square- 
sail is an impenetrable wall between the helms- 
man and anything which may be ahead of him. 
A lookout is an unheard - of precaution, so it 
was only by rare good fortune that we avoided 
running down a number of them in the dark- 
ness. 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



By ten o'clock on the morning of the 22d we 
had covered the forty miles between Mila Head 
and the breakwater which forms the harbor of 
Yokohama, passed the quarantine officials, and 
dropped anchor close to the magnificent United 
States cruiser Olympia. 

One of the most delightful experiences to the 
yachtsman on summer cruises in home waters is 
the harbor life in such ports as Bar Harbor, New- 
port, and the other resorts of our eastern coast. 
To many this social life is the highest ideal of 
yachting, and were it eliminated, the chief charm 
of the sport would be taken away. In foreign 
ports such experiences are by no means lacking, 
and are on the contrary far more interesting and 
attractive than at home. 

In such a country as Japan the government 
is most friendly to Americans, and an American 
yacht receives courtesies equal in almost every 
respect to those granted to men-of-war. The 
constant interchange of civilities with the offi- 
cials of a country whose manners and customs 
are so entirely different from our own is a source 
of never failing interest, and the yachtsman's 
welcome to the local yacht clubs of Oriental 
ports is more hearty and sincere than seems to 
be bestowed by nations which make greater 
claims to yachting fame. 

Yokohama is a favorite rendezvous for the 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



ships on the Asiatic station during the summer 
months, and the most delightful memories of 
the entire cruise are the friendships among the 
officers of the Olympia, the Detroit, the York- 
town, and other ships of the squadron. The time 
has passed when an American need blush for his 
country on meeting our naval vessels abroad. 
The ships that carry the stars and stripes in the 
Asiatic squadron are second to none, and the 
officers are worthy successors to those who in 
early days made American seamen famous the 
world over. 

Opportunities for cruising along the coast of 
Japan are very limited. Particularly in summer, 
the danger of typhoons and the absence of avail- 
able harbors make it unsafe to take extended 
cruises. A trip through the Inland Sea, how- 
ever, is one which can safely be taken by any 
yacht, and which no yachtsman visiting Japan 
should miss. Owing to exceedingly poor trans- 
portation, this remarkable combination of land 
and sea has not received the attention it deserves 
from writers on Japan. Among the Japanese, it 
is considered one of the three principal sights 
of the country. The steamers of the Pacific 
Mail and other lines sail through a part of the 
Sea on their regular trips, but the main ship 
channel gives no idea of the quaint little har- 
bors, charming scenery, and interesting out-of- 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



the-way places which can be visited, for the pre- 
sent at least only by a yacht or specially char- 
tered steamer. For a steam yacht there are no 
difficulties of navigation to be overcome, and all 
that is necessary is to obtain a pilot thoroughly 
familiar with all parts of the Sea. A sailing 
yacht, however, requires the constant attendance 
of a tug in order to pass through the most beau- 
tiful, but exceedingly narrow passages between 
the islands. Even with such assistance, a sail- 
ing vessel should not attempt to pass the narrow- 
est straits, except at slack water. Many pas- 
sages are less than one hundred yards wide, 
through which the tide rushes at the rate of ten 
knots and more. 

Picturesque and perfectly sheltered harbors 
are numerous. Some of the ports at which we 
stopped had never been visited before by foreign- 
ers, and the little remote fishing villages afforded 
a splendid opportunity for studying Japanese 
character, untouched by Western civilization. 
The ten days spent in the Inland Sea were alto- 
gether too short a time to explore its intricate 
channels, and even to sail past the thousand 
mountains and thickly wooded islands which 
form a barrier to the Pacific and give the Sea its 
name. 

It is difficult to believe that the ocean north of 
the fortieth parallel is the same old Pacific over 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



which we so peacefully sailed from Honolulu to 
Yokohama. In the south the principal occupa- 
tion was endeavoring to devise new balloon sails 
to catch every breath of the light trades, while 
on the return trip it was frequently a scramble 
to lower all sail in the shortest possible time. 
Instead of balloon canvas, the thought was to 
see how small a rag could be shown to the gales. 
The yachtsman who wishes to enlarge his experi- 
ence and desires practice in handling his vessel 
under all conditions of wind and weather should 
cruise in the Pacific Ocean. 

Leaving Yokohama the 2d of September took 
us to sea at the worst time of year. On the 
day before sailing a severe typhoon had passed 
up the coast, and three days later we encoun- 
tered the edge of another which did immense 
damage about two hundred miles northwest of 
our position. It was, then, with a feeling of re- 
lief that we found ourselves at the end of a 
week's sailing beyond the reach of such unwel- 
come visitors. 

From a study of the chart, one is led to ex- 
pect a current setting along the coast of Japan 
and across the Pacific far greater in volume and 
strength than the Gulf Stream of the North 
Atlantic. The kurosiwa or Japan Current un- 
doubtedly exists, but it would seem to be far 
more frequently affected by the prevailing winds 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



than is the Gulf Stream. Directly in the sup- 
posed centre of the stream where a current of 
from one to three knots an hour was expected, 
we were surprised to find by observation that 
practically no help was received from this source. 
Absence of this current was still more of a puz- 
zle as we had experienced only westerly and 
southwesterly winds, which should have increased 
rather than retarded its force. The only plaus- 
ible explanation to account for temporary ces- 
sation of the Japan stream is that the typhoons 
which had been very numerous during the 
month of August had, on leaving the coast of 
Japan, become strong northeast gales. This 
theory was strengthened by our meeting a heavy 
northeast swell lasting until after we had passed 
the i8oth meridian. It had been our purpose on 
leaving port to follow as closely as possible the 
great circle track to San Francisco, and we were 
fortunate in being able to make practically a per- 
fect course the entire distance. 

There was certainly no monotony in the sail- 
ing. Frequently a whole sail breeze would begin 
the day, increasing by night to a howling gale, 
followed by a few hours of flat calm. In order to 
realize our hope of making a reasonably rapid 
trip, constant watching and active work on the 
part of all hands were necessary, so that the 
short and precious hours when it was possible to 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



drive the Coronet to her utmost should not be 
wasted. 

One gloomy, breezy morning, an immense 
waterspout appeared less than two miles from us, 
traveling toward the northwest. It was a grand 
sight, but not a pleasant neighbor, and no one 
regretted its final disappearance astern. 

As we approached the coast of California, fog, 
the sailor's worst enemy, shut in upon us. For 
three days observations had been impossible, and 
we were obliged to rely upon dead reckoning, 
which although always kept with great care, at 
this time received double attention. 

At eight o'clock on the evening of the ist of 
October, we judged our position to be about ten 
miles to the westward of the Farallones light- 
house ; and as the fog continued dense, hove to, 
waiting for a more favorable chance to run for 
the light. At midnight the fog " scaled up " a 
little, and the Coronet was headed a true east 
course. Scarcely an hour passed after getting 
under way before we heard a whistle right ahead, 
which soon proved to be the siren on the Faral- 
lones. 

The yachtsman who has never known the plea- 
sure of making a light after a long and difficult 
voyage has something to live for. Even the pro- 
fessional seaman knows the exhilaration of the 
moment, and the amateur may be pardoned if he 



DEEP-SEA YACHTING 



too feels a thrill of pride and pleasure. The 
wonders of the universe never seem so close and 
real, as after a month at sea with nothing but 
the sun and stars to mark one's path. By their 
help we made within fifty miles of the shortest 
possible course between Yokohama and San Fran- 
cisco, covering the forty-six hundred miles in 
thirty days. 

After passing the light, fog settled again, and 
the anchorage off San Francisco was reached by 
aid of the numerous fog signals along the shores 
of the Bay, after having caught only one glorious 
glimpse of the Golden Gate. 

In concluding this chapter on the strictly deep- 
sea cruising of the Coronet, I cannot refrain 
from urging yachtsmen in general, and those tak- 
ing ocean trips in particular, to cooperate with the 
Hydrographic Office in adding to our knowledge 
of ocean currents, winds, and other phenomena of 
the sea. Foreign nations recognize our Hydro- 
graphic Office as a model for all countries, and its 
high standard of excellence can only be main- 
tained by the hearty assistance of all interested 
in seafaring matters. The information which it 
furnishes to mariners is of the greatest value, 
and the daily observations upon which this infor- 
mation is founded can easily be taken on any 
properly equipped vessel. Our government is 
most generous in its treatment of yachtsmen, 



xxxviii DEEP-SEA YACHTING 

and it seems only proper that we should do every- 
thing in our power when opportunity offers to 
assist in placing the maritime affairs of the na- 
tion on a basis truly representative of American 
thought and American progress. 



CORONA AND CORONET 



CHAPTER I 

THE CORONET 

Swift flies the schooner careering beyond o'er the blue ; 

Faint shows the furrow she leaves as she cleaves lightly through ; 

Gay gleams the fluttering flag at her delicate mast — 

Full swell the sails with the wind that is following fast. 

Celia Thaxter. 

Years ago, a prevalent style of tale possessed 
never-failing interest, though causing continual 
surprise to one small reader. Ordinarily the work 
of English authors, some boy-hero was frequently 
despatched to India, usually because of sudden 
poverty or other disaster overtaking his relatives ; 
and the impression given was that, next to death, 
a journey to the antipodes was the most dismal 
of fates. 

While accepting the story-teller's point of view 
so far as necessary in sympathizing with the sor- 
rows of the leading family, I was always filled 
with amazement that a journey to India could be 
regarded as a calamity. I half wished I might 
have been that youth setting off to seek his for- 



CORONA AND CORONET 



tune in far lands ; perhaps a faint foreshadowing 
of a later time, when I should become an adjunct 
to the family of an astronomer, one of whose 
specialties should be interrogating a hidden sun. 

Whatever the reason, strange journeys to re- 
mote regions have always meant delight, and had 
time been plenty, the peerless Coronet might 
have had a passenger on her trip around the Horn, 
instead of awaiting the entire party at San Fran- 
cisco after this portion of her cruise was over. 

Designed in large part by Captain Crosby, for 
many years her sailing-master, as well as by 
Messrs. Smith and Terry, she was built in 1885 
by C. and R. Poillon, of Brooklyn, at a cost of 
about ;^ 70,000. At the time of the Japanese ex- 
pedition the largest sailing yacht in the New York 
Yacht Club, her finest record is in two consecu- 
tive watches of sixty miles each, thus accomplish- 
ing 120 miles in eight hours. 

Although the actual dimensions of the yacht 
are given by her owner and captain, with a few 
words as to her history, he has not described her 
beauty, the elegance of her interior arrangement, 
and the details of the race that opened her famous 
career so brilliantly. The start was from an im- 
aginary line off Owl's Head, Long Island, at 
1. 10 P.M. of the i2thof March, 1886, the finish off 
Roche's Point, Cork, Ireland. The Coronet occu- 
pied 14 days, 19 hours, 3 minutes, and 14 seconds 



THE CORONET 



in the passage, winning the race by i day, 6 
hours, 39 minutes, and 40 seconds, sailing 2905 
miles ; while the Dauntless sailed 2957 miles, — 
a fine race, always spoken of as " a glorious vic- 
tory, an honorable defeat." 

Immediately afterward her owner made a voy- 
age around the world, the graceful yacht exciting 
much admiration in all ports. At Honolulu, 
King Kalakaua came on board, and in Yoko- 
hama harbor she was visited by the Emperor, 
who ordered at once for himself a boat exactly 
like the Coronet's gig. 

In October of 1893, she became the property 
of Mr. D. Willis James and his son. 

She is white, schooner-rigged, carrying every 
sort of sail, and as airy as a bird. It is not to be 
expected that any wandering breeze, however 
light, could escape all her alluring opportunities 
for usefulness in topsails, staysails, jibs, and raf- 
fles, — and, indeed, when this cloud of canvas 
is spread to a brisk wind, the Coronet is a thing 
of beauty indescribable. 

With gig and cutter stowed away forward for a 
long voyage, a fine stretch of open deck still 
remains, while, no room being wasted on en- 
gines or coal bunkers below, all the space is 
available for living quarters. Finished in carved 
mahogany, the main saloon is about twenty feet 
square. A piano and writing-desk, easy chairs 



CORONA AND CORONET 



and divans invite varying moods, bookcases are 
filled with tempting volumes, and an open stove 
of red tiles shows a glowing bed of coals in damp 
or chilly weather. 

Two large staterooms, also finished in mahog- 
any, contain brass beds, furniture and walls of 
one done in pink velvet, the other in satin bro- 
cade. With four other rooms, each artistically 
furnished, ten or twelve guests are luxuriously 
accommodated. 

A crew of ten men, a sailing-master and two 
mates, a cook with two assistants, and two stew- 
ards, the Coronet's freight of human beings on 
many trips falls little short of thirty. 

As she lay during the autumn of 1895 in 
Tebo's Basin, South Brooklyn, all her possibilities 
of beauty, speed, and grace latent, preparation for 
her long voyage around the Horn went rapidly 
forward. Rigid examination revealed a tiny spot 
in the huge foremast. The imperfection, less 
than an inch in diameter, hardly made an inden- 
tation on the surface of this great timber, yet at 
some crucial moment a sudden strain might come 
upon just that spot. So a new and flawless mast 
was substituted. No less minutely was inspec- 
tion made of the whole vessel. New steel rig- 
ging was provided, a thick coat of paint covered 
the white deck for the voyage to San Francisco, 
furniture was shrouded in linen, and heavier parts 



THE CORONET 



of eclipse apparatus already complete were care- 
fully stowed below. 

On the 5th of December, 1895, she left her 
cosy winter quarters to breast the icy seas and 
gales of a four months' voyage. In the southern 
hemisphere summer weather would prevail, but 
many days lay between the Narrows and that 
genial region. 

Her owner and his wife, the Astronomer and a 
few guests went down the harbor on the yacht, 
and, returning with the pilot, watched her lightly 
skimming the wintry waters farther and farther 
from sight, as early December twilight settled 
over the tossing sea. Great faith is required in 
the science of navigation, in the seaworthiness of 
his craft, and the skill of his sailors, for a yachts- 
man to entrust his dainty vessel to the mercy 
of winds and waves during a voyage of fifteen 
thousand miles. 

Five days later the Coronet was sighted by the 
steamship Braemer, nearly a thousand miles from 
Sandy Hook, encountering heavy seas upon the 
edge of a severe storm through which the Braemer 
herself had come. Occasionally other vessels 
were sighted, but they were not bound in direc- 
tions for bringing news — and this was the only 
report during the long voyage. So the winter 
was passed, with reasonable certainty, but no 
knowledge, that she was making her course safely. 



CORONA AND CORONET 



Considering the Coronet's sailing qualities and 
former achievements, this did not require an im- 
possible exercise of philosophy. Once each week 
her owner plotted her probable course and run 
upon the chart, his faith supplying deficiencies 
in actual news. 

The Coronet's log during all these days is an 
interesting record. Many fairly good runs are 
set down, but she encountered much rough 
weather, frequently a " whole sail " breeze ; and 
suggestive, even if painfully succinct accounts 
are given of the various sorts of weather, vessels 
sighted, gales coming on, guns taken below, all 
sails reefed, and *' oil-bags got ready." 

For Sunday, 9th February, 1896, off the coast 
of Patagonia, the entry reads: "At midnight 
wore ship on account of the sea. Ship burying 
herself to the foremast, middle part. Called 
all hands and reefed her down fore and aft, and 
wore ship. Latter part much rain and blowing 
hard in squalls." 

Farther on are records of "Confused sea. 
Rain. Hove to under the fore trysail. Got the 
oil-bags over side, one from each cat-head, and 
one in the main rigging." 

On Thursday, 13th February, 1896, "Blow- 
ing strong. Lying under reefed storm sails, and 
oil-bags over the side, and an old Cape Horn 
swell running. It seems as if the little Coronet 



THE CORONET 



would go end over end at times. But up to to- 
day we have not lost a rope-yarn off the deck." 

Two days before anchoring in the harbor of 
San Francisco, a high, confused sea was still 
running, and " a good deal of tumbling aboard." 
But she soon sailed triumphantly into port, cast- 
ing anchor at Sausalito, headquarters of the local 
yacht club. 



CHAPTER II 

PREPARATION 

Pause not to dream of the future before us. 

Osgood. 

Professors of practical astronomy must always 
invent. No mental graces or acquirements can 
supersede a mechanical bent, whereby instru- 
ments of whatever sort give joy and all tele- 
scopes delight, merely in themselves, and quite 
independently of their performance in bringing 
heavenly bodies a few million miles nearer. 

Since in this generation we cannot make sun 
and moon stand still, lengthening of the precious 
minutes of totality can be accomplished only in 
two ways. One astronomer might take with him 
ninety-nine others, each with telescope, camera, 
spectroscope, or other bit of apparatus to ask his 
own particular question of the calm corona as 
it gleams against the silent darkness. Or one 
astronomer could transport a hundred telescopes 
and cameras, if only each could make its own 
record. In the history of science thus far, eclipse 
expeditions of one hundred human observers 
have not materialized, although an attractive 



PREPARA TION 



prospect to regions unheard of where such a mis- 
sion might establish itself. But a composite ma- 
chine is possible, by which a hundred instruments 
are able to ask simultaneously a hundred differ- 
ent questions of the corona automatically, while 
one astronomer sets everything in motion, pla- 
cing safe and implicit reliance in the precision of 
his mechanism. Fortunately, too, machinery 
has no nerves ; for in the past, impressiveness of 
the scene at totality has been responsible for 
many a lapse in executing well-rehearsed pro- 
grammes. 

While the Coronet was buffeting Cape Horn 
swells and the great rollers of the Pacific, carry- 
ing tubes and mountings, the Astronomer was 
hard at work completing his invention in finer 
detail, until satisfied that the prospective minutes 
of total eclipse would be lengthened at least ten- 
fold. Specifically, twenty telescopes and cameras 
were to observe and set down at the same time, 
all under electric supervision of one central me- 
chanism ; and exact records of the unemotional 
tool would be at hand after the eclipse was over, 
well adapted to patient study at leisure. 

So who could complain if tubes and valves and 
pneumatic arrangements and object-glasses and 
electric devices of every sort strewed the draw- 
ing-room, and measured their innocent length on 
every floor throughout the house .-* The family 



CORONA AND CORONET 



of a professor of astronomy get thoroughly accus- 
tomed to all such trifles, and learn to step cir- 
cumspectly among polished brass and shining 
specula, nor can they by any chance be surprised 
at strange occupants of their desks and dressing- 
tables. 

The cardinal principle of this automatic device 
is simple enough even for comprehension by the 
unmechanical, as an astroriomer^s relatives are 
too apt to be. Research on the corona has be- 
come in these latter years mainly photographic ; 
so that a multitude of telescopes and spectro- 
scopes, if transformed virtually into cameras, are 
thus able to collect their evidence simultaneously 
and independently. 

The idea that machinery could be made to ex- 
ecute these motions, instead of separate persons, 
first occurred to Professor Todd during his for- 
mer expedition to Japan in 1887. The plan was 
roughly carried out by native assistants at Shi- 
rakawa, on the old castle donated by the Govern- 
ment for his observing station. Although crude, 
the separate mechanisms worked so well that he 
developed the same theory more elaborately for 
his next expedition — to West Africa in 1889. 
Exhaust air currents through pneumatic tubes, 
connected with each telescope and plate-holder, 
were controlled by a slowly moving perforated 
sheet of paper, similar to those now familiar in 



PREPARATION 



automatic musical instruments. Movements of 
absolute precision allowed the exposure of over 
three hundred plates during the period of to- 
tality. 

The apparatus proving somewhat bulky, elec- 
tricity was made the controlling power when in 
1895 plans were maturing for Yezo. Endless 
chains of plate - holders of different sizes were 
arranged to pass before each of the twenty tele- 
scopes, at varying rates of speed. A copper 
cylinder full of pins revolved slowly, each pin as 
it passed along touching its, appropriate metal 
tooth, and closing a circuit that set in motion 
some particular instrument at any prearranged 
instant during the two minutes and forty seconds 
while totality should prevail. A moderate calcu- 
lation of its capacity showed that four hundred 
pictures could be taken, the movement of each 
exposing shutter and its corresponding plate- 
chain being dehberate and precise. 

That all these telescopes should remain con- 
stantly pointed at the sun, even for two or three 
minutes on this slowly whirling earth, farther 
mechanism was necessary. Without a driving- 
clock of some sort, any celestial object is speedily 
out of the field of view, or off the plate. First, 
all the telescopic cameras are rigidly attached to 
one central frame, and this polar axis must itself 
follow the sun in his apparent path through .he 



12 CORONA AND CORONET 

sky, carrying with it all the instruments. A 
sand-clock, used successfully in West Africa, was 
thought again feasible. By this arrangement a 
heavy weight resting upon a tube of sand slides 
gently down, as the sand runs out below at a uni- 
form rate, hour-glass fashion. 

After duly experimenting, the Professor de- 
cided reluctantly that the sand was not, after all, 
sufficiently smooth for his purpose. Ultimately 
a column of glycerine was substituted, to his 
entire satisfaction. 

Preparation for an attractive expedition has 
one curious phase, — the variety of demands to 
join it, a few delivered verbally, though chiefly 
by letter. From every walk of life and all parts 
of the country came insistent applications for 
billets, possible and impossible ; each setting 
forth in glowing terms the writer's especial quali- 
fications. Every mail for many weeks brought 
such letters, — a unique collection. 

Certain aspects of scientific expeditions, too, 
are not represented by clocks and lenses, nor the 
critical selection of personnel. Apparatus did 
not contain the whole winter's story. Seven 
months' absence from one's native land means 
many costumes. The rigor of our own northern 
regions, and of the first days on the Pacific, the 
tropic heat of Honolulu and Yokohama, the 
memory of Japanese humidity (gloves had been 



PREPARATION 13 



sealed in Mason's jars to prevent moulding), 
camping-out gowns for the eclipse station, full 
dress for all kinds of entertaining in foreign and 
always jovial ports — to provide for all these con- 
tingencies may not have necessitated the quality 
of brain for inventing twenty electric observers 
of an eclipse ; but the problem was not entirely 
simple, nor was the time too long to prepare for 
conditions so varied. By the middle of March, a 
focus was approaching. Tests of apparatus were 
nearly complete. Crates and trunks and boxes 
were in readiness ; and one hundred and seven- 
teen days had passed since the Coronet left New 
York. At last, on the first of April, the wel- 
come telegram arrived — " Coronet in San Fran- 
cisco to-day. Can you start to-morrow t " 

The first stage of expedition travels began as 
early bluebirds were singing their blithe spring 
songs among the budding trees of the old college 
town, and a long good-by was said to its classic 
groves. 



CHAPTER III 



OVERLAND 



Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels, 
And fly like thought. 

Shakespeare, King John, iv. 2. 

A RADIANT Easter Sunday was followed by 
heavy snow, submerging New York, when friends 
collected at the Grand Central station to say 
farewell that early Monday morning. Despite 
gloomy skies roses filled our hands, the College 
Glee Club gave the Amherst yell, and the long 
journey began, with its sense of exquisite rest and 
lack of responsibility after constant and fatiguing 
preparation. Quick or careless movements, how- 
ever, were indulged in with caution, from con- 
sciousness of our precious surroundings, — lenses, 
chronometers, photographic plates ad libitum. 

At Rochester more expedition material ap- 
peared ; and continually we were met, not only 
by friends and well-wi-shers along the route, but 
by waiting instruments. Awakened in the night 
by a stop — arousing thought immediately con- 
centrated upon " another telescope ! " 

Mr. Hill, president of the Great Northern 



OVERLAND 15 



road, had generously reserved for our use his 
own private car (" A i "), which at Chicago was 
quickly filled with expedition possessions, and 
the various members of the party sallied forth 
for a day in the city. With the fall of windy 
twilight more farewells, and pleasant last words 
from the president of the World's Fair Commis- 
sion, and the discoverer of the fifth satellite of 
Jupiter. 

There had been days of well-remembered plain 
in crossing the continent by the Canadian Pa- 
cific years before, but the mental effect was 
somehow different from the impressive and illim- 
itable levels of North Dakota and Montana. 
Strange to weirdness and unutterably lonely, 
snow often fell across the treeless wastes, no 
trace of spring brightened the gray scene, and 
twilights descended in ghostly fashion, as the 
edge of the visible world softly faded. 

Much of the landscape was merely clay, some- 
times low, but menacing hills and ridges, fantas- 
tic, waterworn, — miniature Gardens of the Gods 
done in mud. Here and there paths and tracks 
led to nothingness. In the Fort Peck Indian 
reservation spiritless communities collected for 
no apparent reason ; log huts encircled tepees 
flying scarlet flags, and a brawny squaw, chop- 
ping wood with vigorous strokes, was watched 
with silent approval by a row of braves. Occa- 



i6 CORONA AND CORONET 

sionally a cowboy sped along, and companies of 
Indians in vari-colored rags galloped about on 
rough ponies from nowhere to nowhere. The 
days were dull and cold like late November; a 
ray of genial sunshine might have lighted these 
infinite plains with almost cheerful life, mak- 
ing swift shadows and gleams of brightness, but 
under the sombre sky they were dead, impassive. 
And still trails wandered off aimlessly, the wind 
blew drearily, and the buttes or mud cliffs on the 
horizon held out no promise beyond their hope- 
less verge. 

An exceedingly fine road-bed these level lands 
afford the Great Northern, our luxuriously ap- 
pointed car riding so smoothly that letters and 
journals were brought surprisingly up to date, 
and expedition work suffered no interruption. 
Life went on with great cheerfulness, whatever 
the outer scene. It was an early discovery that 
the personnel of the expedition included con- 
tralto and soprano voices, and that the General 
and the Musician sang fine bass and tenor. With 
an ample supply of glees, madrigals, and anthems, 
many hours were spent in " reading," whose 
effects might not have discredited a more sta- 
tionary quartette. Half unconsciously, too, the 
company studied one another, deciding that it 
was a harmonious combination as well in ways 
other than musical, and likely to remain so. 



OVERLAND 17 



One memorable morning, against a royal back- 
ground of blue sky, peak after peak rose into 
early dawn, deeply snow-covered, and inexpres- 
sibly solemn in that silent land. To fall asleep 
in a country of bare and limitless level, and to 
awake amid primeval cedars, pines, and spruces, 
rising straight and clear a hundred feet into 
blue air, and white mountains so high that their 
summits are invisible from car windows — how 
thoroughly American the contrast of consecutive 
days ! This radiantly sunny forenoon was spent 
chiefly on the observation platform. Tumbling 
Flathead River followed for miles, and one great 
peak like the Matterhorn appeared and reap- 
peared with superb effect, between the giant 
shoulders of nearer hills. 

The Kootenai River was a clear, green stream 
with flashing white foam in its swifter shallows, 
and our train, now far above on the mountain 
side, perched on a high trestle, or shooting 
through ten tunnels, was again close beside the 
water, where an occasional fisherman or boatman 
gave accent to a landscape never lonely, though 
almost untouched by human influence. 

Spokane was approached over level regions 
once more, beneath a sky like June, though great 
evergreen forests continued, and the snow-covered 
Rockies formed an edge and finish for the world. 
It is a sunny city, fair and attractive, and the 



1 8 CORONA AND CORONET 

country around was inundated with flowers, like 
a brilliant sea of pink and yellow and purple blos- 
soming. Over fertile fields, miles square, where 
men were ploughing rich soil, the mountains 
retreated into the east; then train and plain 
were covered by a cloud, while, more ethereal 
in blue distance, snowy peaks caught sunlight 
yet, like the veritable entrance to some celes- 
tial region beyond imagining. Twilight came on 
softly, mountains faded, and smooth gray blotted 
out the world. But where sunset should have 
been were streaks of pale yet bright apple-green 
among the slate-colored clouds, — full of hope and 
promise. At every stop the clear pipe of early 
frogs filled the still evening. 

Sharp contrast again with morning — we were 
once more among white hills, and tall evergreens 
straight and majestic, every branch heaped high 
with feathery snow. In the utter silence and dim 
air the falling flakes could almost be heard. 
Thoughtful railway oflicials had sidetracked our 
car at Cascade Tunnel over night, to await a 
special engine sent to take us over the " Switch- 
back " by daylight. This pass is more than four 
thousand feet in elevation, and the road zigzags 
backward and forward until from the summit 
one may look down upon loop after loop below, 
each at a diflerent level. Steep as were the 
mountain sides, yet evergreens clothed them with 



OVERLAND 19 



beauty to the very peaks, now lost in drifting 
whiteness. But snow covering is not perma- 
nent, nor are there glaciers, as in the British 
Rockies. 

A little hamlet of half a dozen houses lay nine 
hundred feet below, with no apparent way out. 
Shut in on every side by steep mountains and 
heavy forest, Wellington's horizon is seemingly 
halfway zenithward. 

Spring snowslides not infrequently fall across 
the track, when rotary snow-ploughs come to the 
rescue. At Wellington, word having just been 
brought that a train somewhere in the mountains 
needed release, the expedition was invited to see 
the "rotary" in vigorous operation, throwing ice 
and snow far down the gulch, and clearing the 
track speedily and effectively. 

All the peaceful Sunday was spent at Welling- 
ton. A walk along the track in the utter 
solitude brought overpowering consciousness of 
the close immensity of those impenetrable 
heights. Silence was insistent. Faint murmur 
from a muffled brook in the valley below and an 
occasional bird-song, wild and sweet, drifting 
down into the white day from some unknown 
elevation, only intensified the profoundly solemn 
quiet. 

Toward twilight the storm abated, allowing a 
view of the paths of former avalanches straight 



CORONA AND CORONET 



down mountain sides where tallest trees had 
been torn away like shrubs, — narrow white 
tracks through the forest. Approaching night 
filled the deep valley brimful of purple shadow ; 
the air grew warmer, trickling streams from 
overhanging drifts added a sound of rushing 
waters. Lights flickered picturesquely from a 
train a few miles up the mountain, and a whistle 
now and then came down from the heights. 

The Skykomish River escorted the expedition 
through breakfast, among blossoming fruit trees 
to the shores of lovely Puget Sound, — green 
water touched with white caps, and rocky shores 
skirted with familiar evergreens like the coast of 
Maine. Beneath many-shaded gray clouds the 
radiant Olympian Mountains shone forth fitfully, 
white and high, occasionally gleaming in brilliant 
sunshine, sparkling gates of some Paradise of 
Peace. 

Seattle is nobly situated on successive terraces 
above the Sound, the Olympian and Cascade 
ranges in plain sight ; beautiful Mount Baker 
and lofty Rainier. But mist and rain are over- 
fond of hiding this unparalleled scenery. Crim- 
son wild currant was everywhere in blossom, and 
the wall-flower ; lawns were smoothly green, and 
English ivy covered many dwellings with its dig- 
nifying touch. Still unfinished, the city abounds 
in possibilities. 



OVERLAND 



Friends were here also, and loyal Amherst 
graduates ; but from New York to San Francisco 
newspaper reporters were omnipresent. Our in- 
stant arrival in every city was greeted by papers 
containing " full accounts " of the expedition, with 
ghastly portraits as well, dark and sinister, less 
like a peaceful body of innocent scientists than 
some band of outlaws bound for gore and gold. 
With each new stop more reporters scrambled 
for more material for still other " stories." But at 
the precise moment when pads and pencils were 
hopefully brought forth, the Captain, the Pro- 
fessor, even the amiable Doctor and General, by 
a series of curious coincidences, had immediately 
pressing business at some distant point. Others 
in the party seemed to melt away imperceptibly, 
and it so often devolved upon the present his- 
torian, deserted by her allies, to sustain the con- 
versation on these somewhat trying occasions, 
that she became expert to a melancholy degree 
in answering questions about the plans, objects, 
incidents, and personnel of the party. 

Often these interviews were prettily embroid- 
ered by the active imaginations reproducing 
them. One paper announced that the Coronet 
was now awaiting her guests, having just arrived 
at San Francisco from New York "via the 
Isthmus." Another stated that "Mr. James is 
the fourth owner of the Coronet, she having had 



CORONA AND CORONET 



three before him." Still another, confusing a 
dignified scientific expedition with a party of 
Dunkards simultaneously en route^ described our 
company as composed largely of women and 
children under the care of a spiritual adviser, 
hearty and healthy in appearance, wearing peace- 
ful and happy expressions, and on our way to 
form a community in the wilderness, where our 
own forms of religious belief might be practiced 
without hindrance. 

Memory of Portland is a happy blending — 
friends, beautiful drives, parks luxuriant with 
blossoming trillium and dogwood. At evening 
our little drawing-room was yet again heaped 
with roses, while once more a hearty Amherst 
cheer gave genial speed to parting guests. 

Southward from Portland, Shasta is unmistak- 
able king of all the great brotherhood. Inter- 
mittent snowstorms swept across, white clouds 
clung airily to his crown. Sunset light turned 
the snowdrifts rosy pink, like Mont Blanc from 
Chamounix. 

Darkness brought the last evening on board 
the "A I," and our affection for this delightful 
ten days' home was " done into rhyme " by 
Chief, whose ready gift at occasional verse was 
afterward in frequent demand : — 



OVERLAND 23 



Valedictory Lines to "A i." 

You have carried us many a mile, " A i," 

From the rising, away to the setting sun ; 

O'er mountain and plain have we sped along, 

With mirthful story and joyous song. 

A happy crowd, without one " scrap," 

Save that gotten up by the newspaper chap. 

For you we 've ploughed snow, and filled your tanks. 

And made you the scene of schoolboy pranks — 

And you 've filled our tanks, from many a plate 

Placed by Lizzie and Charlie and Alfred " the great." 

In fact you *re an A i car throughout. 

And you know what you have on board, no doubt — 

Where beauty and science and finance meet, 

With " gyroscuti " as yet incomplete. 

To eclipse all things that get in the way, 

And at last to knock out Sol's dying ray. 

But the rhymester grows sad as the time draws near 

For parting — but then we shall reappear 

On ocean's wave, and there 's less regret 

As we think of the cruise of the Coronet. 



CHAPTER IV 



SAUSALITO 



Then is all safe, the anchor 's in the port. 

Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, iv. 

Where was the Coronet ? How would she 
look after her second voyage around Cape Horn ? 
Every member of the expedition felt as vital an 
interest in a first sight of the fair craft as even 
her owner himself. 

Nothing was seen of her on the way from 
Oakland across the bay ; but at the wharf in San 
Francisco we were met by her sailing-master, 
Captain Crosby, and Frank Thompson, a young 
man who had charge of the instruments on the 
voyage. Both were brown and beaming after 
the four months' trip. Their report showed the 
Coronet still living up to her reputation for speed 
and seaworthiness. No accident had marred 
her record, the apparatus came in perfect condi- 
tion, and she lay at Sausalito, a half-hour's ferry 
trip from the city, among the craft of the San 
Francisco Yacht Club. 

Though intended solely as a pleasure yacht, 
the Coronet was found to offer unexpected gener- 



SAUSALITO 25 



osity in space for stowing securely any farther 
amount of scientific paraphernalia. The more 
delicate bits of mechanism brought overland were 
soon safely packed on board, additional necessi- 
ties being bought in San Francisco to avoid 
transportation from New York. 

Weeks might have been filled solely with plans 
of hospitable friends for entertaining the expe- 
dition, and many invitations were accepted be- 
tween visits to scientific headquarters and the 
adjustment of unaccustomed but graciously re- 
ceived cargo. It was a busy time. 

Built up from the water, clinging to a steep 
hillside and embowered in foliage and blossom- 
ing roses, Sausalito possesses singular charm. 
From the narrow village street along the bay, 
steps innumerable lead upward past roofs of 
houses, past another tier of dwellings, to merge 
themselves in a gravel walk, still steeply ascend- 
ing. Overhung by luxuriant trees and flowering 
shrubs, the " El Monte " was finally reached. 

Not yet in entire readiness for her guests, the 
Coronet allowed them to gather for a few days at 
that little inn, — a place so distinctly foreign and 
picturesque that a shock of surprise always ac- 
companied the unexpected sound of spoken Eng- 
lish. A beautiful prospect rewarded the climb. 
Yachts lay at anchor in the bay, six or eight 
trading vessels and the Coast Survey steam- 



26 CORONA AND CORONET 

ship MacArthur, while beyond, villages nestled 
at the bases of hills, at this season green to their 
summits. 

A tropic richness of vegetation covered the 
whole region, like one well-remembered June at 
Glengarriff. In San Rafael and other villages 
near Sausalito verandas were hidden in roses, 
the "beauty of Glazenwood" especially conspicu- 
ous in buff blossoming with shell-pink edges. 
Live oaks and the green bay, eucalyptus and 
sequoia filled the landscape, with palms and 
evergreens. Roses climbed often over high 
trees, hanging delicate blossoms from the top- 
most branches, a tangle of riotous flowering. 
Driving over the fine roads. Mount Tamalpais is 
nobly conspicuous. 

Gradually ship's stores were sent on board, 
instrument -packing completed, the protecting 
paint holy-stoned off the deck, and staterooms 
put in sailing order. That assigned to the As- 
tronomer and his companion was charmingly 
upholstered, both walls and furniture in rose- 
colored velvet. What feminine heart would not 
expand with gratified decorative sense, at the 
thought of thus voyaging daintily over the blue 
Pacific } Not unhappily I contemplated my 
modest store of silver wherewith to adorn the 
dressing-table in port, and a luxury or two planned 
for certain corners. 



SAUSALITO 27 



But the Professor's decorative instincts, while 
even keener than those of his household, — often, 
indeed, bringing original suggestions to bear 
upon the home habitation, — always take second- 
ary place whenever touching the confines of 
scientific pursuit. Several improvements, there- 
fore, of a technical and not wholly aesthetic char- 
acter had soon despoiled the pretty pink room. 

Raising the brass bedstead allowed nine deep 
drawers beneath, most useful during all the long 
trip. Two bookcases were fastened on the walls, 
and a case of twelve small drawers for lenses and 
eyepieces, plates and mirrors. A little curved 
sofa was also elevated in station, that under it a 
long box of like shape might be inserted, — in- 
valuable for gowns and dress-suits all summer. 
A tall but sufficiently inoffensive wardrobe was 
made fast beside the closet. 

It was all very snug and comfortable, with 
ample space for everything needed during seven 
months ; but the stewards looked on with de- 
spairing eyes as more and yet more of the rose- 
colored velvet walls disappeared ; and suspended 
telescopes were ornaments novel to the Coronet. 
Against the few inches of uncovered wall the 
Astronomer's protesting associate humbly tacked 
one or two portraits of her ancestors, her de- 
scendant, and certain home scenes, and thought 
her troubles over. 



28 CORONA AND CORONET 

But shortly before sailing, the scientific head 
of the expedition appeared on board with a large 
mahogany case in which ticked loudly a sidereal 
break-circuit chronometer, which he calmly pro- 
ceeded to screw to the dressing-table top, last 
rallying-point for dainty belongings. Descendant 
of two generations of astronomers and companion 
of a third, however, submissive attitudes of mind 
were inborn, so I smilingly assented to it all, 
even promising to wind that chronometer should 
such service become requisite by stress of circum- 
stance. Though no longer a bower, the room 
was a sort of scientific emporium, the precious 
lenses had each its little drawer, and everything 
was in comfortable readiness. 

A magnificent storm came up just before sail- 
ing. A wild gale beat the bay into white-caps, 
and set all the yachts dancing. Communication 
with shore was for several hours cut off ; and 
even when the bay subsided into quiet, the sea 
outside still heaved tumultuously. 

Just after luncheon and dozens of good-bys, on 
the 25th April, the Coronet sailed off, amid dip- 
ping flags and booming cannon, our own pen- 
nants flying, our farewell salutes waking Sausa- 
lito echoes. Out through the Golden Gate, 
across the bar (showing as a distinct line between 
pure blue of ocean depths and greenish, muddy 
waters of the bay), and into the broad Pacific the 



SAUSALITO 29 



Coronet tossed, where rear-guards of the storm 
still played with breaking white-caps out to a far 
horizon. 

Finally the Bonita, which had accompanied us 
for a few miles to convey back to the city our 
pilot, a guest or two, and a dozen hastily written 
notes of farewell, changed her course ; there was 
a last glimpse of a fast-receding shore ; the Faral- 
lones were passed, and the expedition was left to 
itself in a wide waste of waters, with the Coronet 
for our two weeks' cosmos. 

" Then the sun sank, and all the ways grew dark." 



CHAPTER V 

FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA 

Joyfully to the breeze royal Odysseus spread his sail, and with his rudder 
skillfully he steered from where he sat. No sleep fell on his eyelids as he 
gazed upon the Pleiads, on Bootes, setting late, and on the Bear that men call 
too the Wain, which turns around one spot, watching Orion, and alone dips 
not in the ocean stream. 

Odyssey, v. 270 (Palmer's Trans.) 

The blue Pacific undulated gently, fair and 
sparkling ; the voyagers lay lazily in steamer- 
chairs, with the deck gleaming white, brasses 
scintillating in the sun, white sails rounded with 
the wind, and motion just airy enough to exhila- 
rate. In the shrill yet not unmelodious whistle 
of brown " goonies " ^ during these soft, bright 
May days at sea, could be heard potentially songs 
of orioles and bluebirds in New England orchards. 
Life lay dreaming in sunshine. 

No throbbing engine stirred the heart of the 
pretty craft with restless pain and hot discontent, 

1 Great brown albatross always soaring round the Coronet 
when there was any breeze, and only rarely flapping their wings ; 
but usually resting on the water when we were becalmed, pad- 
dling duck-like at the stern, and unable to rise except with 
much exertion, at first getting under way by running on the 
smooth water with extended wings. 



FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA 31 

but "quivering in the joy of her wings" she 
spread them like a bird to skim waves she 
scorned to plough through, tossing them off in 
foam from her bow. 

Already I had twice crossed the Pacific Ocean 
by steam, yet its magnificent immensity was 
almost unappreciated until this voyage in a sail- 
ing vessel. Distance, if not annihilated, is at 
least mastered by latter-day triumphs of steam ; 
but an indescribable charm lies in leisurely 
traversing enormous ocean spaces, dependent 
wholly upon the wind's sweet will ; and when 
breezes depart, lying idly upon a glassy sea with 
sails hanging limp, a friendly sun flooding the 
decks with warm radiance, and a sky of softest, 
deepest blue brooding close above, affords one of 
the conditions yet remaining in this swift cen- 
tury when time seems of no value, and may be 
defied with impunity. As a rule, the Coronet 
voyagers were good sailors. Chief, an experi- 
enced naval officer, enlivened each meal with new 
and thrilling stories, and one of his inventions 
was a boon to the company, — a chess-board of 
ribbons woven upon a cushion, with pins in the 
bottom of the pieces to insure stability whatever 
the slope of the deck. Chief and Mrs. Captain, 
the Doctor and General soon became conspicu- 
ous experts, and many were the hours absorbed 
in this game. 



32 CORONA AND CORONET 

Two or three days out a huge four-master 
loomed up superbly in the south, probably from 
Australia, sweeping on toward San Francisco. 

Winds for a time were fitful, occasionally 
dying down to a flat calm. In lieu of any- 
thing more startling on these quiet days, the loss 
of a baseball overboard was brought into that 
category of noteworthy incidents. Twenty-three 
other balls below, provided against just such a 
catastrophe, were not enough to prevent an order 
to lower the dinghy, obeyed as promptly and 
with as perfect discipline as if the call had been 
"man overboard." Two officers speedily rescued 
the tossing white speck, the one lone object on 
the wide Pacific. But it had first to pass a care- 
ful scrutiny and much unsatisfactory pecking on 
the part of several inquisitive goonies. 

A taste of brisker motion in the prevailing 
quiet fascinated another passenger to embark in 
the little boat, which then rowed off to a suitable 
distance for photographing the beautiful yacht. 
The sensation was unique enough for the risk of 
a genuine peril, — the whole Pacific Ocean with 
its broad and glassy rollers, a sense of immens- 
ity unparalleled, and the tiny dinghy, hardly an 
incident on its surface, our sole means of possible 
connection with the rest of the world. 

These odd goonies were endlessly entertaining. 
Hundreds, even thousands of miles they flew 



FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA 33 

over the waste of waters. Always voracious, 
they were easily tricked by trailing cork and 
fishhook baited with a bit of meat. The hook 
merely caught in their strong, curved bills, and 
they were hauled over the rail entirely unhurt, 
though always surprised at their sudden change 
of environment. Much flapping and screaming 
accompanied this operation, but once their web 
feet were set upon the deck, the birds were too 
heavy and awkward to fly back over the low 
rail ; so they reeled about helplessly, or squatted 
flat on the white boards, occasionally spreading 
their wings, which fold curiously in angular sec- 
tions. Weighing usually six or seven pounds, 
these albatross measured more than seven feet 
from tip to tip. When approached they ob- 
jected audibly, snapping their bills with a sharp 
click. A purple and white ribbon was tied 
around the neck of one, which may yet be roam- 
ing the wide Pacific decorated with Amherst's 
colors. 

Goonies were not our only visitors. One 
morning a tiny octopus, an unwilling caller, was 
washed on deck by a heavy sea and stranded. 
His head was surrounded by tentacles ending in 
suckers, — eight legs and two long feelers. He 
had a sort of bill like a parrot's, hard and sharp, 
and large weird eyes ; perhaps a miniature edition 
of a famous character in "The Toilers of the 



34 CORONA AND CORONET 

Sea." Sometimes, too, the brilliant flying-fish 
found themselves unexpectedly landed on deck, — 
bird-like and beautiful creatures, whose misfor- 
tune I deplored. A tiny Portuguese man-of-war 
was washed on board one day, a fairy bark less 
than an inch long, and full of shifting tints of 
blue. 

For several days, in a region between the 
tumultuous winds off California and the steady 
trades farther south, light breeze or calm pre- 
vailed, tempting our men to a plunge overboard 
for an ante-breakfast swim. But a shark seen 
from time to time caused this exhilaration to 
degenerate into sunrise bucket-baths on deck, 
primitive shower baths with sailors for mech- 
anism. 

On Sundays everybody appeared in fresh white 
duck, and service was read in the cabin, a number 
of the crew being always in attendance, and add- 
ing their lusty voices in the tunes. "Eternal 
father, strong to save," that magnificent hymn for 
the sea, was a favorite feature. 

One fair, sweet Sunday, 

" So cool, so calm, so bright," 

a veritable 

" bridall of the " sea " and skie," 

a breeze crept gently over the water, sails 
swelled hopefully — trade winds had begun. The 



FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA 35 

great squaresail was set ; stronger and more 
steady grew the wind to a full twelve - knot 
breeze, and for several days the Coronet fairly 
hissed through the water. The yacht deck is so 
much nearer the waves than that of a steamer 
that her speed, especially in darkness, seemed 
prodigious, as phosphorescent foam flew along- 
side, and a luminous wake trailed astern. Great 
following seas chased us, sometimes breaking 
lightly over the beam, but in the main slipping 
harmlessly beneath ; the graceful craft, without a 
word of protest, sliding up to the crest, to float 
down hill again like a white seabird. 

Except in rough weather, expedition work 
went constantly forward. As one delicate piece 
of mechanism after another was completed, all 
were brought for safe keeping to the once pink 
stateroom, and hung or nailed or triced up in 
every available spot. If one of its occupants 
chanced to throw out her hand carelessly in the 
abandon of dreams in the middle of the night, it 
was no uncommon occurrence to hit some per- 
fected bit of apparatus and so set it off, to spin 
accurately through all the movements of picture- 
taking on its own account, or of evolutions 
which the half aroused sleeper dared not inter- 
rupt. Truly, science acquaints us with strange 
bedfellows. 

The saloon was daily the scene of unwonted 



36 CORONA AND CORONET 

activity. Doldrums had been passed, actually and 
metaphorically. Chief and Mrs. Captain spent 
sunny hours in fabricating small holders for 
endless plate chains ; the Mechanician covered 
the big table below with mysterious devices in 
copper and steel, and the Musician experimented 
with different sorts of photographic baths. Such 
work as could be done on deck was always carried 
there ; and by the time for afternoon tea, always 
served above, the entire party was generally 
ready to assemble on rugs and cushions in shadow 
of the mainsail, for an hour's listening before 
dinner to some entertaining book. The Coro- 
net's library, full and carefully selected, had been 
increased for this voyage by friends and publish- 
ers until every taste might suit itself. 

Exercise, too, was not neglected, and with 
more than eighty feet of clear deck, the number 
of laps necessary to complete the pedestrian's 
mile were often accomplished, and all sorts of 
hand over hand feats on taut halyards were 
performed, to the edification of the less ath- 
letic. 

The picturesque habit of singing shanties ^ 
while hoisting the mainsail is still preserved 
among sailors on the Pacific. Finding that this 

1 The word, coming undoubtedly from the French chanter^ 
has been perverted by unknown evolution to its present use and 
form. 




EXPEDITION WORK ON BOARD 



FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA 37 

ancient though fast dying custom was thoroughly 
appreciated, our sailors gave many specimens, 
the mate singing a first-line solo, joined by the 
rest in a chorus following. With an accom- 
paniment of such rhythm the big sail steadily 
ascended. An exceedingly interesting custom, 
with the peculiar hitch in the average sailor's 
voice, it is a performance not to be forgotten. 

A number of these melodies became familiar, 
but the words were apt to vary with the solo- 
ist's ability to adapt current events to necessary 
metre. Versions in honor of the Coronet unfail- 
ingly brought a full audience. One of the most 
popular, with several sets of words, ran : — 



fe^g 



i 



«c 



itit 



m 



fe^^ffi 



r^- 



^^±^^S^ 



itjt 



1 Yankee ship comes down the river, blow, boys, blow. 

The Yankee ship comes down the river, blow, boys, bully 
boys, blow ! 

2 How d' ye know she 's a Yankee liner ? Blow, boys, blow, etc. 

3 Stars and stripes, and spangled banner. 

4 What d' ye think of the Captain of her 1 

5 John L. Sullivan, Boston slugger. 

6 What d' ye think of the chief mate of her .<* 

7 Charlie Mitchell, English bluffer. 

8 What d' ye think they had for dinner ? 

9 Monkey's heart, and donkey's liver. 



CORONA AND CORONET 



10 Do yer know she 's a Havre packet ? 

11 How d' yer know she 's a Havre packet ? 

12 When she fires a gun, you hear the racket. 



"Blow the 
favorite : — 



man down " was also a great 






^feg#|l^feS^^=^ 



1 Oh, we are the sailors to join the Black Ball, uwa, wa, blow 

the man down, 
Oh, we are the sailors to join the Black Ball, 
Give us some time to blow the man down. 

2 When Black Ball sailor get clear of the land, — 

he has a variety of experiences emphatic rather 
than elegant. 

With temperatures constantly warmer came 
evenings on deck, sometimes with informal lec- 
tures on astronomy illustrated by constellations 
conveniently at hand — or again quartettes sung 
by the light of swinging lanterns. 

One of the company, whose energy needed 
some vent, planned a small paper, called the 
" Coronet Saturday Evening News," to which the 
reluctant company contributed articles, grave or 
gay, current or historic, — its society column 
especially brilliant, — and poems of much grace. 



FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA 39 

Though without cheerful submission to this draft 
upon intellectual resources, reading of the first 
number was greeted with much applause — from 
the contributors. In default of a press on board, 
transcription of this interesting sheet devolved 
upon the editor, who spent her entire day in 
the operation. Volume I. number i, therefore, 
comprises the whole edition of this unique publi- 
cation. 

After the advent of the trades, daily runs 
averaged high : one triumphant noon record was 
two hundred and fifty-three miles ; and night after 
night was full of the creak of woodwork and 
straining sails as the great boom tugged at the 
main sheets, and an occasional sea swirled along 
decks when the bow dipped into some watery 
mountain. 

Toward the end of the second week, society 
around the yacht was increased by the advent of 
beautiful white birds, nautically named sea-hawks. 
Mother Carey's chickens, too, arrived, and mar- 
linespikes with their two long tail-feathers. Even 
the goonies adopted fuller dress, now appearing 
with white bands around neck and tail. Over 
a brilliant blue and restless ocean, covered with 
flashing whitecaps, the Coronet was rapidly near- 
ing Honolulu. 

One big sailor developed a remarkable gift at 
telling astonishing tales without a shadow of 



40 CORONA AND CORONET 

foundation. Various members of our party often 
went forward to experience the enlivening influ- 
ence of his talent for relating hypothetical inci- 
dents truly marvelous. Usually Big Jim's yarns 
were re-spun upon the quarter-deck. 

Colossal drawn-work upon canvas in a vari- 
ety of patterns was made a sort of leisure-hour 
occupation for the sailors, and afterward used in 
port to ornament the starboard gangway. 

Another beautiful Sunday morning dawned, 
and with it a dim suggestion of cliffs and moun- 
tains on the far horizon. Off the port bow this 
faint shadow grew more distinct, until the barren 
slopes of Molokai came clearly into view, cut by 
enormous clefts, and streaked with tumbling cas- 
cades. Soon after Oahu, on which Honolulu is 
situated, rose above the waves, its rough, volcanic 
mountains sharply abrupt, and a little later dash- 
ing surf was discerned. As the Signal Station 
on Diamond Head came into view, we ran up 
four flags, K D J B, meaning "Coronet, New 
York." 

A gorgeous sunset was flooding the world as 
this bit of official introduction took place. Great 
cumulus thunder heads were edged with daz- 
zling gold ; from a rift above, sun rays streamed 
over the rough peaks of Oahu and the uneasy 
sea like a huge inverted halo. Gradually the 
whole sky grew yellower, until everything was 



FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA 41 

bathed in liquid gold ; then the clouds broke 
into shreds, and the glory of the Lord came down 
and brooded over the waters. 

Lights in Honolulu flashed out with darkness, 
one by one, and after the wide wastes of over 
two thousand miles of the lonely Pacific, it was 
friendly and homelike to know of other human 
beings near by, even on a remote cluster of ocean 
islands. Blue fire was burned for a pilot, who 
speedily responded with a tug, whose whistle that 
quiet Sunday evening announced our arrival to 
the city, already some days on the lookout for the 
Coronet. 

Soon in warm, semi-tropical darkness, we were 
anchored in the narrow bay, with nothing of 
Honolulu apparent except twinkling lights and 
a dim mountain background, sharply serrated 
against the starlit sky. 



CHAPTER VI 

LIFE IN HONOLULU 

The poetry of earth is never dead. 

Keats. 

" Pass the first shower and turn to the right " 
— so runs the answer to inquiring strangers, de- 
sirous of reaching any given point in Honolulu. 

But the rain seems to have a curiously unwet- 
ting character, like the swift downpours in sunny 
Bermuda ; or else it possesses some attractive 
quality sufficient to counteract any unpleasant 
moisture. Nature behaves as if uncertain whether 
she is shining or showering, both rider and 
pedestrian sharing her indecision. 

A fascinating city is Honolulu, embowered in 
tropical foliage fairly smothered in riotous vines, 
chasing one another in reckless race of crimson 
and golden and purple blossoming to the very 
tops of trees and buildings. Solid masses of 
color dangle high in air, and groups of Japa- 
nese and Chinese give a certain oriental effect to 
its thoroughfares. Native Hawaiians, the women 
in the prevailing white holokuy or unadorned 
" Mother Hubbard," throng the streets, and with 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 43 

some admixture of foreign blood are often hand- 
some. 

Architecture is simple and inoffensive, dwell- 
ings retreating behind wide verandas, so shaded 
by verdure that their modest lines are quite hid- 
den. Portuguese houses may always be recog- 
nized by their attendant goat, grapevine, and 
tiny, naked baby. The rocks, chiefly volcanic, 
are too porous for building material, most of the 
native woods are too hard, and though a few 
edifices of a sort of coral conglomerate may be 
seen among occasional grass huts of natives, 
speaking generally houses are brought as timber 
from Oregon or Washington. 

After mid-ocean coolness, the heat was notice- 
able, and at breakfast cream and fresh fruits ap- 
peared ; while artistic water-jars, red " monkeys " 
of various shapes, adorned the sideboard. The 
awning was made fast over the quarter-deck, and 
staterooms were put into port order; even the 
obtrusive chronometer was taken on shore for 
rating, though telescopes still continued to adorn 
the once rose-colored room. 

Paradise indeed, — the bits of coral and vol- 
canic loveliness are rightly named. Lapped by 
gentle surf from the blue Pacific, fanned by 
trade-winds which steal away its fierceness from 
southern sunshine, singularly free from damp- 
ness, the islands are bathed in an ineffable glow 



44 CORONA AND CORONET 

of dreamy terrestrial atmosphere no less than in 
a certain poetic aroma left from the old, half- 
barbaric yet charming life of long ago. 

Although the wonderful cloaks and helmets of 
yellow feathers once worn by royalty are now 
seen only in museums, there is even yet a sug- 
gestive national picturesqueness. Men lounging 
about wharves and corners wear hat-bands and 
decorations of peacock feathers, and chains {leis 
in the native language) of brilliant flowers about 
their necks. At a moment's notice any chance 
group can take up guitars or the little ukulele y 
playing and singing together in delightful har- 
mony the half-plaintive and wholly sweet Ha- 
waiian airs, with soft words like running water. 
A limp language, chiefly liquids and vowels, 
it is peculiarly suited to music. When the lin- 
guistic brook flows over a sharp pebble, usually 
a "k," it is for an instant broken into pretty rip- 
ples and flashes of sound, but it soon glides on- 
ward again, smooth and unruffled. 

Society is distinctly American — constantly 
more so. American money is current, schools 
are founded upon our system, text-books pub- 
lished in the United States are used, and instruc- 
tion is almost wholly in English. Recognized 
as the vernacular in 1876, it became compulsory 
in the schools ; but even in earlier days it was 
studied by all high-class Hawaiians. 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 45 

Uneasy political elements abounded. Royal- 
ists still hoped hopelessly for ** restoration " and 
a limited monarchy, with its accompaniment of 
pleasant and characteristic court life ; others 
looked for the return, as sovereign, of the popu- 
lar princess Kaiulani, then in Europe, her cabi- 
net composed of the best American element — a 
sort of amiable compromise. But as a rule the 
influential inhabitants earnestly desired annexa- 
tion to the United States as a practical solution 
of vexed questions agitating the little republic. 
Since that hope long deferred is now, happily, an 
accomplished fact, their joy can almost be felt, 
meeting our cordial hand-clasp across the leagues 
of land and sea. 

President Dole's charming manner, tactful ad- 
ministration, and personal popularity had appar- 
ently laid for a time the restless ghosts of politi- 
cal disquiet, but it was a period of waiting only. 
Effervescence seethed below the surface lull, and 
island politics were too complicated for easy dis- 
entanglement. To all our band of voyagers it 
seemed incredible that the powers at Washington 
should delay annexation of the fair islands, in gen- 
eral so ardently wishing it, so American in their 
development, with their wealth in sugar, in coffee, 
and in fruits, their persuasive climate, their end- 
less possibilities. Almost from the moment of 
landing it seemed that the stars and stripes 



46 CORONA AND CORONET 

must soon float unchallenged from Government 
House. That and all the other public offices and 
residences were duly pointed out ; all very much 
resembling sub-tropical edifices elsewhere in the 
world, but it hardly seemed to matter what any- 
thing was for, or who lived under any especial 
roof, when all over the city was such a rush of 
bloom and verdure, a commingling of delicious 
odors and flickering sun and shade from over- 
arching palms and banyans. 

Picnic making in Honolulu is a fine art. Open- 
air entertaining is constant. A lawn tea one 
evening at Waikiki, a suburb of the city, is still a 
sort of fairy memory. A low, verandaed house, 
far back among sheltering trees and vines, showed 
welcoming faces to the arriving guests, who were 
conducted to a sort of outdoor drawing - room 
{lanai)y open on three sides to an enchanting 
garden close to the sea. Lapping gently against 
the white beach, summer ripples almost reached 
the algarobas in the sand, whose feathery foli- 
age threw delicate shadows from the western 
sun. On the grass, light tables stood about, each 
with a bowl of plumeria or other characteristic 
flower; a larger table at one side was covered 
with bright leis^ fragrant coffee and dainty re- 
freshment. One of our hostesses had been an 
old friend in Washington, years before, when her 
husband was Hawaiian minister to the United 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 47 

States. Strolling or sitting in groups under the 
trees, with leis (bright flowers for the ladies, a 
sort of green laurel for the men) thrown over 
their shoulders, the guests were served by softly- 
stepping Japanese maids. 

Toward the city tall cocoanut palms stood out 
on a point of land in silhouette against the yel- 
low sunset. On the other side rose Diamond 
Head, bleak, barren, impressive in the purpling 
east. As twilight crept onward, Japanese lan- 
terns began to gleam here and there among the 
shrubbery ; but no trace of chill or dampness 
touched the air, and on the darkening sea hori- 
zon the southern cross burned in white splendor. 

A quintette of native musicians sat in shadow, 
playing the iikulelej a banjo, two guitars, and a 
taropatchy occasionally singing Hawaiian melo- 
dies full of surface gayety and lightsome rhythm, 
yet soon revealing an unsuspected undercurrent 
of deepest pathos. To the gliding music two 
or three friends, for our edification, danced na- 
tive figures on the grass — strange and graceful. 
All danced for a time in the drawing-room, but 
the dim lawn, the sweet, haunting music, and the 
lapping waves cast an unresisted spell, and the 
company soon drifted out under the algarobas. 

Late in the summer night a happy party drove 
back to the city, and were rowed out to the 
Coronet at her anchorage in the dusky harbor. 



48 CORONA AND CORONET 

Valleys are numberless, an especial charm of 
the islands. There picnics most abound. One 
fair, fresh day we rode on horseback through the 
city and up Manoa Valley ; leaving the horses 
at a Chinaman's domain, a short walk through 
banana groves brought us to a rushing stream, 
whose banks, thickly covered with rich vegeta- 
tion, rose steeply against the blue sky, seclud- 
ing the little camping-ground. Distant hillsides 
were exquisite with bluish-green atmosphere and 
caressing sunshine. 

Picnics in other environment than valleys were 
no less lovely — on famous beaches where we 
first had surf-baths in a rainbow-tinted sea, after- 
ward sitting upon the grass for luncheon on 
closely woven native mats, the making of which 
is almost a lost art. Picnics were given on moun- 
tain-tops, upon verandas and in gardens — at 
Laiakanoe hale (Point of Mists) near Pearl Har- 
bor, where the whole American navy may now 
make itself at home, with the Waianea mountains 
(Watchtowers of the West) forever upon guard. 
The sweet, simple, gracious life of the islands is 
delicious even in retrospect. 

Surf-riding is an exciting amusement ; native 
boatmen, each with a happy passenger in his 
canoe, paddle out beyond the breaking waves, 
only to ride beachward on a rushing, foamy 
crest. Bathing-suits are necessary for the pas- 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 49 

senger (the islander does not trouble himself 
with one) because overturns are not infrequent. 
If the foreigner can swim until the native comes 
to his aid, all is well. Most persons can do so, 
and are generally rescued alive, though not inva- 
riably. Still, the perilous pastime continues in 
unabated popularity. 

Ladies use no side saddles. With full, divided 
skirts the Hawaiian method of riding is not less 
graceful than our more accustomed fashion, be- 
sides being more hygienic for both horse and 
rider. Tennis and golf clubs add their testi- 
mony to a certain fresh tonic in the balmy air. 
Yet the purely native character is undeniably 
indolent, amiable, and careless of the morrow, 
with an untroubled satisfaction in the sunshine 
and bananas of this life. To the average Amer- 
ican manner its southern softness and grace are 
added, producing a charm too frequently absent 
from more prosaic conditions at home. 

The President and Mrs. Dole were unwearied 
in personal kindness to the expedition. A break- 
fast, among other pleasant attentions, was given 
us at the executive mansion one dewy morning, 
amid palms and birds and flowers. The dining- 
room was wide open to veranda and garden, full 
of summer scents and murmurs, heavy shade of 
bread-fruit trees, and sound of dripping foun- 
tains. The first six courses were fruits, — alliga- 



50 CORONA AND CORONET 

tor pears, papaia, fresh figs with cream, mangoes, 
pomegranates, and more familiar strawberries, 
bananas, and oranges. Another morning Mrs. 
Dole invited to her beautiful home thirty or forty 
friends, members of an informal literary club, to 
meet the guest from over-seas. With none of 
the harassed ferment and eager attitude charac- 
teristic of that objectionable type, the genuine 
new woman, these native-born ladies of Amer- 
ican descent were an audience appreciative to 
an inspiring degree. Discriminating in their 
criticism, they showed the gracious effect of 
careful study in conditions of untroubled leisure. 

Sojourners in this enchanted land are always 
taken to the pali (precipice). Back from the 
city climbs the road, through Nuuanu valley, 
between curious peaks and ridges of volcanic 
hills, ten or twelve hundred feet high, and past 
roadsides abounding in bright lantana. Scarlet 
and orange and yellow, it is always at first 
greatly admired by visitors, conspicuous in their 
buttonhole bouquets of the gay blossoms. But 
no resident would be guilty of disporting himself 
in the flowers of this overrunning pest, supplant- 
ing as it does worthier growths, and causing great 
wrath in the innocent breasts of husbandmen 
and householders. It is, however, not less dec- 
orative because objectionable to agriculture. 

Brightly green in afternoon sunshine rose the 




RESIDENCE OF PRESIDENT DOLE IN HONOLULU 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 51 

valley's inclosing walls, their summits shrouded 
in soft cloud, often condensing suddenly in 
swiftly passing showers. Carefully cultivated 
fields of kalo (or taro) showed each root of hand- 
some leaves set off by itself in a little hill sur- 
rounded by water. Personally I could wish this 
highly useful plant might be kept exclusively for 
decorative effect, wherein it is a success ; since 
as basis of poi^ the national food, it becomes an 
unappetizing edible of barbarous qualities. 

In 1795 the Napoleon of Hawaii, Kamehameha 
the First, fought a great battle near the present 
Nuuanu road in his final conquest of Oahu, one of 
the last islands to acknowledge his supremacy. 
His enemies fought bravely until their leader Kai- 
ana was killed, which utterly discouraged and soon 
laid them low ; while the remnants, forced up the 
narrowing valley before the victor, were finally 
driven over the pali at its head, 800 feet into the 
plain below. 

Looking backward for an instant from this 
battlefield, the city lay bathed in warm sunlight ; 
far beyond the blue sea, hazy with distance, 
gleamed to a shimmering horizon. The valley 
closes in yet more narrowly as the road continues 
to ascend, and at last a low wall ahead apparently 
bars farther progress, and giant sentinel towers 
of rock rise several hundred feet on either side. 
No premonition of approaching grandeur touches 



52 CORONA AND CORONET 

one's expectation ; only some pretty vista is an- 
ticipated, like scores of others the world over. 
But beyond that wall the scene might well be in 
some novel planet, so rare and radiant, so shin- 
ing and peaceful, so far and grand — its effect 
was too overpowering for more than the first ex- 
clamation of delight. 

Directly below the parapet falls a steep preci- 
pice. At its foot is a serene and sunny country 
bathed in unspeakable peace after aeons of un- 
f orgotten volcanic agony, — stretching indefinite 
miles to right and left, and joining northward the 
pale and misty sea, with white surf breaking 
high on many a rocky point, or creeping silently 
up to silvery beaches curving around distant 
bays. Over all, brooding sunshine, pensive in 
still beauty ; close at our left an amazing pin- 
nacle of reddish volcanic rock, hundreds of feet 
above. Curving sharply to the right, and de- 
scending steeply under a perpendicular wall, the 
road zigzagged downward to sea-level. 

No words even suggest the strange grandeur, 
the foreignness, the exquisite beauty, the illimit- 
able pathos of this pali. Its charm " vanishes in 
the writing, and remains dumb in the telling." 
But in my innermost heart of memory it dwells 
for all time. During an instant of joyful awe it 
seemed that this world lay solemnly in the very 
presence of God. 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 53 

With return to every-day emotions once more, 
consciousness of the furious wind grew unplea- 
santly insistent ; and a native boy, carrying a 
violin and riding a much decorated horse, passed 
by and down the steep path, with never a glance 
at the outspread glories, but many an interested 
one at the strangers. 

A unique sight in Honolulu is the magnificent 
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, which contains 
the finest collection of South Sea Island speci- 
mens in the world, an epitome of Polynesian eth- 
nology and natural history. Founded in 1889 by 
the Hon. Charles R. Bishop in memory of his 
gifted wife, herself a direct descendant of the 
Kamehameha line and actually heir to the throne, 
the nucleus of the collection was Mrs. Bishop's 
own store of mats, calabashes, and distinctively 
Hawaiian relics, bequeathed to her as sole survivor 
of the original royal line, and supplemented by be- 
quest of Queen Emma's treasures. Later collec- 
tions made in New Guinea and New Zealand came 
to its shelves, and now the whole story of Poly- 
nesia may be read within these remarkable walls. 

The Kamehameha schools for boys and for 
girls, established by the will of Mrs. Bishop, are 
still farther monuments to the extraordinary gen- 
erosity and wisdom of this unusual woman, and 
to her husband's well-directed liberality. Native 
girls in airy, comfortable recitation rooms are 



54 CORONA AND CORONET 

carefully taught subjects of probable use in after 
life. They sang for us American songs, occasion- 
ally one of their own quiet melodies with soft 
Hawaiian words. 

Far back in the misty annals of this little group 
of famous islands, women here and there emerge 
from a gray past in bright relief, — welcome inci- 
dents in a monotonous story of conquest and 
rebellion, war and victory. Even in prehistoric 
times wives of chiefs played conspicuous parts ; 
and in half fabulous tales of old voyages, the 
hero-chieftain took in the great canoe his wife 
and his astronomer, — evidences of good taste 
and sagacity in that twilight period of Pacific 
island history. 

Astrology was practiced, and its devotees con- 
tinually studied the heavens, the places of moon 
and planets in relation to especial stars and con- 
stellations being deeply associated with the for- 
tunes of many high families. Navigation by the 
stars was constantly practiced. Not only at sea 
were women brave and helpful ; but warriors' 
wives often followed in the rear of armies, carry- 
ing food and water, and sometimes aiding the 
belligerents more practically. Manono, wife of a 
brave and popular young chief at the head of an 
insurrection, fought by his side, continuing her 
part in the battle when he fell, finally herself 
dying upon his prostrate body. 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 55 

Rank, too, descended through the mother, and 
marriages of high chieftains were carefully regu- 
lated. A queen's son was a noble, no matter of 
what class his father. On the other hand, the 
son of a chief, if his mother were a person of no 
especial rank, would be one of the masses like 
herself. For state purposes, therefore, great care 
was used in contracting marriages, and offers 
were frequently made by women. In 1807 three 
men were put to death because the head queen of 
Kamehameha the First (Keopuolani, recognized 
by all as the highest living chief) was danger- 
ously ill. She, respecting the sacrifice, recovered 
and lived sixteen years, surviving by four years 
her illustrious lord. 

In later days, too, women are prominent. 
As queen regent Kaahumanu was an enlightened 
ruler, a promoter of education and good morals. 
Living until 1832, her reign, if it may be so 
called, was full of progress and prosperity. Ki- 
nau, as premier in Kaahumanu's place, used her 
strong influence for law and order. In 1859, that 
brilliant king Kamehameha the Fourth and his 
charming wife Queen Emma founded the hospital 
bearing her name, which still keeps her in no less 
loving remembrance than if she had been elected 
chief ruler, as at one time was possible. When 
King Kalakaua died, his sister Liliuokalani be- 
came queen ; thus once again a woman held the 
helm of state. 



56 CORONA AND CORONET 

And so, onward through all the years from the 
brave wives of early chiefs, generations of Ha- 
waiian women are incentive to every native girl of 
to-day. Always prominent in island affairs, they 
have now a better opportunity than women in 
many other nations to live up to their inherited 
traditions, and carry on a worthy island story. 

The old native church, for which each stone is 
said to have been contributed by a different and 
devoted Hawaiian, is quaint and attractive upon 
the exterior, and its service is conducted in the 
soft syllables of the " boneless " language. 

Life in Honolulu harbor had its own distinctive 
interest. Anchored far enough out to avoid the 
dust and heat of the wharves, there was always a 
gentle breeze under the awning of the Coronet's 
after deck, where all our meals on board were 
served. Flowers filled the saloon, fresh fruits 
were unlimited, and our time-bells and those of 
the U. S. S. Adams, as well as of merchant ships 
lying near by, mingled unanimous hours and half 
hours musically all over the harbor, as days and 
nights rolled on. 

Naval officers are always charming hosts. En- 
closed with flags, a native orchestra discoursing 
sweet and plaintive music for American dancing, 
flowers, summer gowns, cool refreshments, — the 
decks of the Adams were often the scene of gay 
teas and receptions, the Coronet's gig and the 



LIFE IN HONOLULU 57 

naval launches carrying festive parties from one 
to the other, and the shore. 

Entertaining, too, in its way, was the artless 
family life in progress upon a neighboring big 
merchantman. The captain with his wife and 
three small children were very much at home 
upon their nautical abode ; and while the ship 
was overhauled for repairs, hammers ringing out 
as the old paint was chipped off her huge sides, 
a fresh coat following closely with rejuvenating 
effect, father and mother played with the baby, 
or wheeled it up and down the deck in a small 
carriage, while two older children pirouetted about 
in little sunbonnets, — citizens already of the 
maritime world at large. 

Much of the Astronomer's time was spent in 
rating the chronometers on shore, in observation 
of transits by night, and in farther tests of the 
new glycerine clock in the Surveyor General's 
office by day. 

But in spite 

" Of hours that glide unfelt away 
Beneath the sky of May," 

and the delightful simplicity of life in Honolulu, 
we were not oblivious to the complex problems 
abounding in the island. Native customs are 
slowly but surely dying out, and an Americanized 
future is now inevitable, — more useful if less 
picturesque. 



CHAPTER VII 

HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES 

The reticent volcano keeps 

His never-slumbering plan ; 
Confided are his projects pink 

To no precarious man. 
Admonished by his buckled lips 

Let every babbler be ; 
The only secret people keep 

Is Immortality. 

Emily Dickinson. 

Remoteness of the Hawaiian islands from one 
another is hardly appreciated by those who have 
never visited our new possession. Honolulu and 
the island group are synonymous to most per- 
sons. Usual maps, too, give suggestion that 
channels at most separate the islands, which may 
lie an hour or two's sail apart. Local steamers, 
however, require two days and a night for the trip 
from Honolulu southward to ports on Hawaii, the 
largest island. 

On the twenty -first of April, Mauna Loa, 
13,700 feet high, had begun to show lurid red 
above its topmost crater (Mokuaweoweo), beto- 
kening one of its infrequent eruptions. From a 
hundred miles away at sea enormous pillars of 



HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES 59 

red flame could be seen streaming upward. Dur- 
ing nearly three weeks a magnificent spectacle 
had continued, and the island papers were filled 
with details of the new activity. 

But the projects pink of this particular vol- 
cano, no less than of its generic brotherhood, 
were concealed from every precarious man ; 
and no one dared to foretell Mauna Loa's never- 
slumbering plan. Its reticence was complete. 
Though the fires were evidently gtowing less, 
such an opportunity must not be missed. Hono- 
lulu fascinations were hard to leave ; still, the 
inter-island steamer Hall at its next departure 
had several members of the expedition on board, 
as well as a number of friends from the city who 
joined us for the week's trip. The Coronet would 
repose peacefully at anchor during this side ex- 
cursion, with those on board whom urgent expe- 
dition business aided in resisting the volcano. 

A few residents of the city, and a German, Dr. 
Friedlander,^ had already made the ascent ; but 
such hardships are encountered that few persons 
attempt it. Mr. Dodge of the Government Sur- 
vey had been one of a party to reach the summit, 
and his description was a truly thrilling tale. He 
told us that the cold was intense, ice filling gaps 
and chasms over which they climbed, a heavy 

1 "Kilauea," by Dr. Benedict Friedlander, Bimmet und Erde^ 
vol. viii. p. 105, December, 1895. 



6o CORONA AND CORONET 

snowstorm was in progress, and mountain-sick- 
ness attacked many of the adventurers. Horses, 
too, suffered greatly, — one dying in the rough 
upward scramble over masses of pahoehoe and 
sharp aa (lava). 

The Wilkes scientific expedition round the 
world in 1844 had made the ascent, and their 
trail, still dimly defined, had been found by Mr. 
Dodge and his party at about 11,000 feet eleva- 
tion. They remained over night upon the edge 
of the crater, whose walls vary from 500 to 700 
feet in height, while the lake of liquid fire was 
not less than 1600 feet in length with a width 
perhaps two thirds as great. 

From this appalling expanse two huge foun- 
tains of flame a few furlongs apart were seen to 
spout upward thousands of tons of lava, brilliantly 
lighting the whole crater, and the heavens above. 
Their average height was about 250 feet ; but 
frequently spurts or fiery jets would fling red- 
hot bombs to a much greater elevation, while 
the boom and roar of this whole inconceivable 
outburst filled every pause in the wild wind. 
Smaller columns constantly leaped forth in dif- 
ferent spots, occasional whirlwinds carrying pillars 
of smoke hundreds of feet above the walls, and 
lifting great slabs of hardening lava only to cast 
them off again. The edge of creeping lava, bril- 
liantly red, lapped a margin of white snow. 



HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES 6i 

Spray from these upspringing fountains of 
flame made graceful curves as they descended in 
sparkling showers, while at their bases a crimson 
sea seethed and boiled like angry surf upon the 
shores of Hades. Descriptions of the activity of 
these fountains perhaps suggested in small mea- 
sure the terrific happenings at the surface of the 
sun. 

What climb could be too arduous for a view of 
such scenes ! 

As the Hall left her Honolulu moorings, the 
wharf presented a characteristic sight. Native 
men in picturesque hats trimmed with bands of 
peacock feathers, women in the universal holoku, 
boys in no particular costume to speak of, and 
everybody draped in wreaths of flowers, filled all 
available space with an amiable crowd. Little 
two-wheeled vehicles waited in the background, 
full of pretty children and young girls in white ; 
close by, handsome brown boys dived in the clear 
green water for dimes and quarters thrown from 
the steamer. Flowers were everywhere, tropical 
sunshine and good-humored faces. Slowly reced- 
ing from the wharf, the Hall passed the Coronet 
at her anchorage, acknowledged her parting sa- 
lute, and turned south toward the incomparable 
volcano.^ 

1 " To no other volcano can Mauna Loa be compared in its 
vast mass, or the magnitude of its eruptive activity." — Captain 
C. E. Button, U. S. Army, 



62 CORONA AND CORONET 

Slight roughness in currents of the inter-island 
ocean caused the passengers, regardless of na- 
tionality, to subside unanimously. The south- 
ern shores of Molokai are more nearly level than 
its rugged northern coast. Lanai was passed. 
But no interest in topographic features sufficed 
to stir the occupants of the forward deck, Chi- 
nese and Japanese, Portuguese and Kanakas, in 
every imaginable half-breed combination, — all 
lying with their luggage around them, in pictur- 
esque confusion. Small Japanese babies with 
shaved heads and fringe of hair and Chinese in- 
fants with tiny queues diversified the scene, but 
made no sound. So thickly was the deck covered 
with various reposing nationalities, all in their 
native attitudes, that stepping room was out of 
the question. It was a motley array. The cap- 
tain was a handsome, swarthy islander, the 
stewards light-footed Japanese. 

The level light of sunset turned the whole 
great slope of Maui brilliant red ; deep shadows 
were thrown into enormous gorges ; occasional 
patches of brilliant green sugar-cane appeared, 
the tropical effect emphasized by tall cocoanut 
palms near the shore. Moist, filmy clouds hung 
about the mountain peaks, now and then drifting 
off aimlessly. Many natives, draped in leis^ were 
leaving the Hall at the little town of Lahaina, 
and through the purser's politeness we took a 
closer view of an unfamiliar hamlet. 



HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES d-^ 

Crowds filled the landing-place, sandy streets 
were bordered by banyan and cocoanut trees, 
and a pond hid itself beneath the crimson flow- 
ers of some greenly spreading water-plant. Boys 
walked calmly up the straight, columnar trunks 
of trees, bringing back cocoanuts as spoil ; women 
and children played in the sand. Along the 
beach lay waa, curious native canoes with ex- 
tended outriggers ; and surf beat high on lava 
reefs outside. 

The evening was warm, the breeze soft, and 
her deck a charmed spot as the Hall steamed 
away in early twilight. 

Kailua, a place of much historic interest, was 
passed at dawn, too early for landing. Miss 
Field was reported as still pursuing there her 
studies into the condition of natives. 

About noon of the second day, Kealakeakua 
Bay was approached, and the monument at the 
village, Kaawaloa, in honor of Captain Cook, 
surrounded by a fence of chains and ancient can- 
non. The discovery of these islands by the 
famous navigator was the turning-point in their 
history, ushering in a new era of prosperity. He 
first visited them in 1778, his second visit being 
in the autumn of the same year. In January of 
1779 he anchored in this bay, where nearly a 
century and a quarter later an eclipse expedition 
tarried on its way to the Orient. 



CORONA AND CORONET 



Cliffs nearly five hundred feet high rise straight 
up from the sea, and around the bay, with water 
as clear and green as an emerald, nestles the little 
town. The site of an astronomical observatory 
established by Captain Cook near by was not 
seen, but it was a thought full of interest that 
instruments had been so early set up and obser- 
vations made in this far-away harbor of Hawaii. 

The murder of this sturdy explorer, 14th 
February, 1779, so affected the world at large 
that no foreign vessels attempted to anchor there 
for over seven years. Land for the monument, 
erected in the name of his countrymen, by Lord 
Byron, commander of the frigate Blonde, was 
given by the Princess Likelike (Mrs. Cleghorn, 
sister of Queen Liliuokalani). 

Telephone service is nearly perfect, and one 
may speak from any of these little native towns 
to all others on the same island. Everywhere 
we eagerly asked for news from Mauna Loa. 
Each reply was more discouraging than the last, 
— its fires were no longer visible ; but ever hope- 
ful we voyaged onward. 

All along the Hawaiian shore lie occasional 
villages ; here and there a freshly made cave in 
the cliffs showed a late burial-place of some na- 
tive. In earlier years a popular custom, this 
method of interment is now infrequently prac- 
ticed. Innumerable natural caves indent the 



HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES 65 

rocky coast, against which deeply blue water 
beats itself into tremendous walls of white, the 
spray flying high and startling the air with a re- 
sounding boom. 

This southwestern coast of Hawaii is barren 
but impressive. Apparently one huge lava flow, 
it is only in spots overgrown by verdure. Black 
death and green life lie side by side. These 
oases hold a few grass huts, and half a dozen 
straggling cocoanuts, while far above lies the 
great mountain, its top lost in drifting cloud. 
With a base so enormous, and slope so gradual 
that its true proportions are difficult to conceive, 
Mauna Loa gives almost the impression of being 
flat on top. Around Hawaii the sea is very 
deep, and if its mountains were referred to their 
true bases at ocean's bottom, where the range 
really rises, they would be no less than thirty thou- 
sand feet, or nearly six miles in vertical height. 

The national vegetable is poi. I had tasted 
this article prepared in several ways, always with 
a new sensation but without marked satisfaction. 
Noticing upon the Hall an old friend and resi- 
dent of Honolulu, engaged in drinking from a 
glass something evidently cold and possibly good, 
I boldly ordered a similar beverage, only to find 
it gray and elastic, and alarmingly acid in flavor. 

I had eaten black bread in Germany with 
nameless accessories, raw fish in Japan, unclassi- 



66 CORONA AND CORONET 

fied crustaceans, and shoots of bamboo, and na- 
tional dishes in various other regions of the 
earth's surface. But liquid poi is a discourag- 
ing delicacy which outranks them all ; and a sin- 
gle draught required all the cosmopolitanism I 
could summon to refrain from unseemly demon- 
stration. The scenery again resumed its greater 
charm, with one fleeting glimpse of Mauna Kea, 
high in the sky. 

Toward evening the Hall anchored off Punaluu, 
two hundred and seventy miles from Honolulu, 
where landing appeared an uncertain perform- 
ance, through pounding surf, still encircling the 
coast in walls of swaying whiteness. About nine 
o'clock two small boats shot through from the 
little town, to bring our company ashore. They 
were propelled by natives ready to dash back 
with us into lines of breakers at the most favor- 
able instant. 

Great rollers chased us madly, raised the 
boats like egg-shells in a wild rush forward, then 
broke over the lava reefs with resounding din 
on either side, now and then enveloping us in 
heavy showers. Still the native oarsmen kept 
peacefully onward, guiding their craft with much 
skill through the narrow passage among rocks, 
taking each sea just right until both boats were 
brought up safely beside a little wharf in partial 
shelter of a small bay, where one assisted jump 



HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES 67 

landed the voyagers among a variegated crowd 
watching our arrival with interest. It was called 
an unusually calm landing for that port. 

Punaluu society seemed to be in a state of 
primitive simplicity. After walking up to the 
little hotel through a path between lily-ponds 
bordered by rushes, no proprietor was apparent. 
Everything was open, all on one floor, doors and 
windows hospitably wide, beds carefully made, 
and not a soul in sight. So we took possession, 
and after a time an excellent Chinaman appeared 
who officially turned the house over to the guests 
and their peaceful slumbers. 



CHAPTER VIII 

A HAWAIIAN JOURNEY 

According to her cloth she cut her coat. 

Dryden, The Cock and the Fox. 

Ah He provided a delicious breakfast ; during 
intervals of dreams we had heard him chasing 
fowls of different species far into the night, and 
the merry company remained unsubdued despite 
heavy clouds enshrouding Mauna Loa, and occa- 
sional sprinkles. But impending disappointment 
as to the great eruption became sad certainty. 
The fierce fires had wholly withdrawn into deep- 
est mountain recesses ; not a tint of red remained 
to suggest the unconquerable energy which for 
nearly three weeks had flashed forth in sublimity. 
The climb, therefore, to Mokuaweoweo, nearly 
fourteen thousand feet in air, was reluctantly 
abandoned, since the grand spectacle had seethed 
itself into rest, and nothing except a dark crater 
would reward the ascent, views of distant islands 
and ocean being almost constantly cut off by 
clouds and mist. Kilauea, less than one third 
as high, but always interesting, and evidently pre- 
paring for an eruption of its own, became our 
volcanic Mecca. 



A HAWAIIAN JOURNEY 69 

Something, called by courtesy a train, inaug- 
urated the first stage of the trip. The track, 
supposedly about two feet wide, varied pleasantly 
in breadth, sometimes more, sometimes less, each 
rail wandering goalward at its own sweet will. 
An amusing toy engine, old and rusty, with a 
shrill shriek to correspond, drew one small plat- 
form on wheels where the satchels of the com- 
pany reposed under a canvas cover ; a second, 
with benches for the men, and a third, boasting 
an awning under which the ladies were invited to 
ride in magnificence. 

Across a volcanic country staggered this estab- 
lishment, in amazing curves, brushing past cattle 
grazing on scanty grass among the lava. Every- 
where superb white poppies and a scarlet flower 
like salvia bloomed lavishly. Over deep gul- 
lies, in the rainy season grotesque lava beds for 
rushing streams, around hills, skirting miniature 
valleys, the little railroad pursued its uncertain 
way to Pahala Plantation. 

Here the sugar-making process was watched — 
from cutting the cane on four thousand acres of 
land, to the completed crystals, not sufficiently 
refined to prevent free importation at San Fran- 
cisco. 

Horses and a rickety stage were soon in readi- 
ness. Several ladies rode in divided skirts, after 
the sensible island fashion. 



70 CORONA AND CORONET 

A desolate country, indeed, this leeward side 
of Hawaii, covered with lava hardened into weird 
shapes like nearly stagnant waves, too lazy to 
flow, but which, just as they were curving for 
another lap, stiffened into crawling circles, or 
heaped in chaotic masses. Brilliant yellow and 
scarlet milkweed blossomed along the way, stand- 
ing decoratively against black lava backgrounds, 
while armies of brown butterflies which might 
have recently escaped from some New England 
meadow, hovered near, perfectly at home in these 
foreign uplands. 

Pele, goddess of fire, seems appropriately fond 
of red, for red flowers, red leaves, red berries, and 
red birds abound on the slope toward her citadel. 
But she is a jealous divinity, and no flower or 
berry must be picked on the slopes of Kilauea, 
for that would imply admiration of them. And 
all homage must first be paid herself — else 
she will send rain or other damper to pilgrim 
enthusiasm. 

A native woman, Kapiolani, having decided in 
favor of Christianity, journeyed to Kilauea in 
1824, purposely to set Pele at defiance. Upon 
the very edge of the crater this brave woman, 
trembling at heart, we must suppose, if only from 
hereditary dread, performed various acts designed 
to excite wrath in the fiery goddess, whose power 
for centuries had been thought absolute. Yet no 



A HA WAIIAN JO URNE V 7 1 

fatality followed these impious performances, the 
truly heroic attempt justifying itself. But super- 
stition is hard to dislodge, and to this day few 
natives would willingly pluck anything on the 
way to the crater. Pele's particular flower, the 
o/iza, grows on large trees, a magnificent fringe of 
scarlet like flame, apparently the long, clustered 
stamens of a tiny, whitish corolla. 

After the charmingly hospitable manner of 
islanders, we were entertained at luncheon at 
Kapapala Ranch, a garden of beauty midst great 
barrenness ; and here another vivid account of 
the great eruption was given. From the depths 
of a heavy snowstorm a benumbed and half- 
fainting company had watched through the night 
the gigantic spectacle, listening to the never 
ceasing roar of flames and internal seething of 
this indescribable cauldron. Though that was 
but a few days before, when ships at sea could 
view the pillar of fire on Mauna Loa's crest for 
one hundred and fifty miles, now it was all out 
and gone — not a breath more of this terrific 
energy, and only a calm summit reposing peace- 
fully above, innocently laying its huge crest 
against the sky, even in its great height like any 
New England hill. 

After luncheon riders and stage traversed 
the short grass, still upward, a telephone wire 
the sole suggestion of direction, or an occasional 



72 CORONA AND CORONET 

intermittent line of lava wall. In the native 
language going toward the mountains is called 
fnauka ; to the sea, or anywhere away from 
the heights, makai. Sometimes a few lichens 
half concealed the rock they decorated; or a 
vine full of blue morning glories climbed high 
on rugged masses, and a few ferns grew here 
and there. The brilliant milkweed went to 
seed at will, — showing, in friendly association 
with buds and blossoms, a silvery puff ready 
to float on the first inviting breeze. Running 
about among the rough masses were tiny quail, 
and a large rock had a round hole in its side, 
through which a fern seemed to have pushed 
itself, turning skyward, and unrolling its little 
green knapsack in fitful sunshine. Behind, the 
blue sea tumbled in white surf on a jet-black 
beach of volcanic sand ; before, the lava-covered 
heights we toiled to reach. 

After the Half-way House, kept by an odd 
character with amusing conversational powers, a 
few more ragged and scrawny trees appeared, 
but this side of the island is undeniably desolate. 

The great lava flow of 1868 came down the 
southwestern slope ; we had passed it, now a 
black and cold devastation, in the Hall at the 
little town of Kahuku. That eruption, begin- 
ning in the summit crater, was accompanied by 
all sorts of convulsions. Earthquakes shook 



A HAWAIIAN JOURNEY 73 

houses quite off their foundations, breaking vases 
and china indiscriminately ; so that now dining- 
room closets in this uneasy region are fitted with 
little guards in front of every shelf — like a 
ship's galley. A " mud-flow " swept downward 
a league's distance in a few minutes, not less 
than half a mile wide and thirty feet deep. So 
rapid was its engulfing rush that thirty or forty 
persons were overwhelmed, and hundreds of ani- 
mals perished. A tidal wave, too, toward fifty 
feet high, rolled against the coast, killing nearly 
a hundred persons, destroying villages, and per- 
manently submerging the road at Punaluu, where 
landing is now effected. 

Another great lava stream broke forth late in 
1880, and flowed down the eastern slope for many 
months. Sometimes a mile and a half in width, 
it slowly but steadily approached the town of 
Hilo, causing much depression in dwellers there, 
and in the price of real estate. The speed of 
these streams of pahoehoe is so moderate that 
time is sufficient to remove livestock and port- 
able treasures from its path. But one may not 
transport his sugar plantation, nor his house and 
gardens ; and property continued to depreciate, 
as this slow, deliberate, relentless stream came 
nearer and nearer. In the general panic lands 
of ancestral memory were abandoned for a song. 
When within three quarters of a mile of the 



74 CORONA AND CORONET 

town, and destruction seemed only a matter of 
days, then it was that trust in ancient super- 
stitions once more prevailed, and the Princess 
Ruth, a member of the old royal Kamehameha 
family, went out with a company of friends to 
appease if possible the wrath of Pele. Bottles 
of brandy and gin, pigs, chickens, silk handker- 
chiefs, and locks of hair were thrown into the 
sluggish stream with appropriate ceremonies. 

It must have been a weird scene, as described 
to me by an eye-witness, a participator in the 
evening's events ; and the party returned to 
town, confident in the success of their diplomatic 
mission. Singularly enough the flow stopped 
next day, dividing itself and dying out harmlessly. 
But the real estate could not be bought back by 
its former owners. Neither gratitude, nor terror 
of Pele, sufficed for that. 

Late in 1886 hundreds of earthquake shocks 
were felt, and soon after New Year's an erup- 
tion occurred at the summit crater of Mauna 
Loa, accompanied by a lava stream following in 
general the great flow of 1868. The death of 
Princess Likelike, sister of King Kalakaua and 
Liliuokalani, occurring about the time this flow 
ceased, gave abundant reason to many natives 
for its ending, a certain propitiatory offering thus 
implied. In December, 1892, Mokuaweoweo 
was again brilliantly active for three days; but 



A HAWAIIAN JOURNEY 75 

the frequent minor eruptions are subordinate to 
the two disasters most frequently quoted — in 
1868 and 1881. 

As the old stage rattled on, the advance riders 
quite out of sight, a damp mistiness hung over 
the landscape. Pele's scarlet flowers glowed in 
the dull day like veritable bits of her own flame, 
and native stories, legends, and myths beguiled 
the rough and ever upward way. Curious blow- 
holes abound, where bubbles of lava once burst, 
leaving deep caves and pits. In one of these 
tradition says Pele once came in search of a 
pleasant home. She was accompanied by sixteen 
hula (dancing) girls, who thoughtlessly picked 
the delicate fringed blossoms of the ohia, and 
otherwise showed carelessness of her peculiari- 
ties ; so that returning one day to the cave after 
an excursion about the mountain, she suddenly 
turned them all into pillars of pahoehoCy while a 
central one of aa is commonly reported to repre- 
sent herself, the only bit of that formation in this 
vicinity. Even now no native can be persuaded 
to enter that cave without an offering, if only a 
lei for Pele. 

Stories relating to fissures, caves, or lava- 
blocks were told on the way, unfailingly pictur- 
esque, and showing a strong bent of the native 
mind. "Henry Gandell's Leap" is a wide crack 
on the slope of Mauna Loa, which a man riding 



76 CORONA AND CORONET 

in hot haste down the mountain-side saw too late 
to avoid. Spurring ahead, he took the flying 
leap, and landed safely on the farther side ; but • 
the strain caused his ultimate death a year later, 
though the horse was reported as still alive. Be- 
lief in kahunas (witch doctors) has by no means 
died out; and a prophet named Lukula foretold 
that a corpse (kupapa-u) would arrive from over 
sea, bringing death and desolation ; that a great 
eruption would then occur, to be followed by a 
royal restoration. Cholera came and Mauna Loa 
broke forth, but restoration remains unverified. 
Toward evening a cloud of white vapor indicated 
the nearness of Kilauea; and steam bursting 
out of holes and cracks in the ground all about, 
very hot and fringed with exquisite sulphur crys- 
tals, formed the suggestive approach to Volcano 
House. Perched high on one wall of the enor- 
mous crater, this hotel commands the entire scene 
of desolate grandeur. A lake of black lava, three 
and one half miles in one direction by one and 
one half in the other, is surrounded by nearly 
perpendicular walls varying from seven hundred 
and fifty to three hundred feet high, at one end 
of which a secondary crater sends out volumes 
of sulphurous fumes. Mauna Loa rises grandly 
toward the west, and in the north Mauna Kea 
raises a rugged peak yet higher. 

Fortunately without other guests the Volcano 



A HAWAIIAN JOURNEY 77 

House hospitably offered ample quarters, most at- 
tractive of all a long billiard-room, dark raftered 
overhead, with huge stone fireplace decorated by 
lurid scenes of volcanic activity. A friendly 
house-party took immediate possession, and many 
and startling were the stories told round the blaz- 
ing fire ; for evening air at high altitudes is cool, 
and in Pele's very sanctuary any tale is credible. 



CHAPTER IX 

KILAUEA 

After eruptions are over, 

After the mountain is dumb, 
After the fire has vanished. 

Up to the crater we come ; 
Wander on black lakes of lava, 

See the white steam rising higher. 
Gaze at the calm crest of Mauna — 
After the fire. 

Early dawn revealed a weird scene. Steam 
issued all about the house from countless fissures. 
Below, the enormous lava lake stretched grim and 
motionless, partly hidden by mist. Over it fell 
showers at intervals, while the hotel stood in bril- 
liant sunrise light, and a superb rainbow arched 
the black pit from wall to wall with heavenly 
radiance. Then sunlight broke through the last 
shred of mist, chasing away the shadows, and it 
was sweet, sparkling morning on Kilauea. 

Descent into the crater, on the sure-footed 
horses, is a memorable experience. Back and 
forth the narrow path winds, down the wall, 
through masses of ferns and foliage, until the 
great cliff behind shuts out half the sky, and high 
in its thick verdure a single bird-song came out 



KILAUEA 79 

airily into the dewy morning. But the lake was 
unspeakable desolation, — black lava in writhing, 
curling, creeping masses as far as the eye could 
reach, growing hotter to the feet as the steaming 
secondary crater was approached, until a stick 
thrust slightly into a crack came out in flames. 
Strange contradiction of this fast-dying nineteenth 
century, a telephone wire crosses this Hades of 
desolation, and, though useless now, once served 
to connect the Volcano House with a little build- 
ing close to the active crater. But in the pictur- 
esque native language, "it was eaten up by fire ; *' 
that is, the hot lava walls caved and the little 
house fell in. 

Every tinest crack sends out heat like a regis- 
ter when the furnace below is red hot — only in 
Kilauea one may not send down impatiently to 
know why the check drafts have been forgotten. 
The crater is a bewildering mass of tumbled lava, 
hissing sulphur steam, and unbearable heat. An- 
other great eruption was daily expected. 

The various kinds of " blow-holes " were curi- 
ously fascinating, with heat too intense even to 
stand near in many cases, yet tempting as far as 
endurable. Anxious as usual for new experiences, 
I descended a short distance into one about 
fifteen feet deep, but speedily returned, nearly' 
overcome by sulphur fumes and a temperature of 
unimaginable degrees Fahrenheit. 



8o CORONA AND CORONET 

"Yes," said the General sadly, "she couldn't 
stay as long as she hoped, but her next article 
will be entitled * My Interview with Satan, or 
What I saw in the Blow-hole.' It will be very 
exciting and sufficiently authentic." 

Such amenities materially mitigate the dreary 
grimness of a slumbering but restless volcano, 
and the active crater's extreme edge was cheer- 
fully approached. The soles of our boots were 
already too hot for comfort, and prevailing sul- 
phur odor was variegated by a strong smell of 
burning woolen, as folds of a gown rested for a 
second against an unsuspected crack in the flaky 
and shining black surface. Thick fumes con- 
cealed the pit activities six hundred feet below, 
and a slight change in the wind would have 
brought suffocation in its train. Above the whole 
surface, even of cooler portions of the lake just 
traversed, the heated air lay in a quivering mass, 
and retreat was a gradual return to comfortable 
breathing. As the lava became cooler, away 
from the more active pit, a tiny green fern now 
and then peeped hopefully from an unaccustomed 
bed ; and enormous encircling walls, often nearly 
perpendicular, rose above with grand but sullen 
effectiveness. The necessarily slow climb to the 
upper world made a mile or two of free wild gal- 
loping on the mountain horses a subsequent ne- 
cessity. Sulphur fumes were blown off in brisk 



KILAUEA 8 1 



breezes, a handful of wild roses was gathered, 
and a soft-footed Celestial announced luncheon 
just as we drew rein under the tree ferns by the 
hotel entrance. 

Kilauea-iki is well worth the short walk through 
unfamilar fields, past strange holes going down in 
blackness to unknown depths, but fringed on the 
edge by luxuriant ferns. For a mile or more a 
footpath winds pleasantly through characteristic 
vegetation, emerging suddenly at the brink of a 
huge pit a mile across, sunk over seven hundred 
feet into the earth. The sides of this enormous 
bowl, in places very steep, are covered with shrubs 
and low trees, and far down were wild goats 
peacefully browsing on the margin of another 
black lake, dead, cold, its waves stiffened in im- 
memorial ripples. This weird spot lies quiet in 
the unmoved calm of centuries, no eruption hav- 
ing broken its repose within historic time. Four 
or five holes in the bank, however, are said to 
have afforded exit for small streams of lava which 
as lately as 1844 sped downward in molten cas- 
cades, — travesty upon murmuring brooks hasten- 
ing to join some still, green, forest tarn. 

It is a strange region, full of uncanny interest ; 
but afternoon tea on the Volcano House veranda 
brought familiar modern life once more to the 
front. 

A stroll to gleaming sulphur caves beyond the 



82 CORONA AND CORONET 

hotel gardens gave renewed consciousness of the 
proximity of nature's vast, uncouth forces, often 
slumbering but never inoperant, and constantly 
ready to burst forth into sublime activity. The 
sparkling yellow sulphur crystals are exquisitely 
fragile, and the cracks they fringe, emitting steam 
and smoke from fires perilously close at hand, are 
too hot for thorough examination. Trees and 
shrubs near these vents are incrusted with yel- 
lowish deposit, making spectral pictures. 

The Olaa road to Hilo traverses another world. 
This little town is about thirty miles from the 
Volcano House. The government road thither is 
hard, perfectly kept, and bordered by tropically 
luxuriant vegetation. Banks of tall tree ferns, 
shrubs showing both white blossoms and scarlet 
berries, huge creepers {ieie) with long, lance- 
shaped leaves, hanging their blossoms high in air 
from trees by which they climb, composed a tan- 
gle lush and bewildering. The water-lemon with 
decorative leaves, blossoms like a passion flower, 
and oval, purple fruit ; bananas, so sheltered that 
their great leaves are perfect — not whipped into 
ribbons like those on windy Bermuda; a large 
bush with drooping, greenish white bells, called 
floriponday made the whole roadside a joy to tra- 
verse, and without the haunting pain that every- 
thing might be barbarously cut down before the 
next visit. 



KILAUEA 83 

Careless guardians of highways in the United 
States might well take to heart the practical les- 
son from Hawaii, where intelligent as well as 
aesthetic appreciation protects and enhances every 
roadside beauty. The district {aind) about Hilo 
is now used extensively in cultivating coffee ; 
and although the land costs only five or six dol- 
lars an acre, five times that sum is used in clear- 
ing it for plantations. But no settler is allowed 
to bring his fields to the roadside ; a border of 
natural growth must be left, not less than one 
hundred and fifty feet wide, between his coffee 
plants and the highway. He may keep four hun- 
dred feet (along the road) of open lawn before his 
house. Otherwise no border growths must be 
cut, and I hear the prescribed width is now in- 
creased by one hundred feet. 

With natural loveliness so jealously guarded on 
every hand, I could but remember certain drives 
in New England, once fair and beautiful, now 
reduced to scenes of painful devastation; where 
farmers, in temporary lack of occupation, might 
have been seen cheerfully mowing banks of 
maidenhair, chopping down trees, blackberry and 
elder bushes, pulling up clematis by the roots, and 
setting fire to the pathetic remnants. Here in 
remote Hawaii every tree and shrub, flower and 
vine, is watched and cared for ; and a total dearth 
of advertising signs on rocks and conspicuous 
places is enforced by law. 



84 CORONA AND CORONET 

Dwellings on the Hilo road are simple to primi- 
tiveness, but with unfailingly attractive grounds, 
often laid out by those consummately artistic 
landscape gardeners, the Japanese. Garden walls 
covered with a happy riot of nasturtiums ; walks 
and steps of tree-fern trunks, brown and elastic ; 
wide verandas, even if the house might boast but 
a single room, furnish the foreground ; while lux- 
uriant forests, laced in a tangle of lusty vines, 
approach close behind the little ranches. 

One tiny house not over ten feet square was 
nearly smothered in rankly gorgeous vegetation : 
roses blooming lavishly, tall begonias in full 
flower, hedges of callas, tree ferns, floriponda^ 
coffee plants, wild roses, bananas, ohia, actual 
trees of coleus — all thriving in very wantonness 
of summer life, hid roof and veranda in clinging 
embraces. Manifestly belonging to a coffee plan- 
tation, a sign on the gate announced that "the 
owner does not wish to show this coffee, but any 
gentleman desirous to learn, and not actuated by 
motives of curiosity, can see it by application to " 
some one within. 

All the ranches were named, in the soft, inver- 
tebrate native words. Letter boxes stand at 
gates, wide open for incoming or outgoing mail. 
Nothing is lost. 

At a little inn halfway to Hilo, where luncheon 
was served in the open air, the entire party were 



KILAUEA 85 



greatly exercised, not to say profoundly shocked, 
by a small child of the Portuguese couple in charge. 
This promising youth, eldest of three, was just 
two years old, in a white cambric dress and big 
sunbonnet, with innocent blue eyes and flaxen 
hair ; yet that depraved infant was an experienced 
smoker ! Holding between his rosy lips the 
stump of a cigar abandoned by some guest, he 
sauntered past the newest comers, puffing vigor- 
ously at what remained, occasionally with two 
dimpled baby fingers removing it from his lips 
with the air of a smoker of fifty, while he blew 
uncertain spirals into the sunny air. The child's 
father seemed to think it an unusual accomplish- 
ment — in which opinion we were gladly unani- 
mous ; but he could not be made to understand 
its danger, only smiling foolishly at remonstrance. 
The pale little Portuguese mother hardly appre- 
ciated the Doctor's energetic remarks, though she 
finally caused the cigar to be taken away, whereat 
the child wept dismally, with rising anger, and 
refused reconciliation. 

Primeval tropic forests crept up to the inn on 
three sides, and the mynah bird was ubiquitous. 
A large bird with conspicuous white spots on its 
wings, imported years ago from Jamaica, in hope 
of eliminating certain destructive ground-worms, 
it has at last filled the islands. Flitting decora- 
tively about among the green was a little scarlet 



86 CORONA AND CORONET 

bird called elepaio from its song ; and the native 
omao^ greenish in hue, sang a full, liquid note. 

On this side of the island it rains so much that 
two hundred and thirty inches often fall in a year, 
so the owner of a coffee plantation assured us. 
A greater contrast certainly could hardly be im- 
agined than this " mad extravagance and splendid 
luxury of nature," and the barren coast skirted by 
the Hall in reaching Punaluu — a landscape of 
lava-flows. 

With tropical sunshine by day, it was never- 
theless the big fireplace which attracted us at 
evening. The last before returning to Honolulu 
brought music, a little dancing, extracts read from 
guest -books full of odd and interesting entries, 
and a story or two, told as the logs burnt into 
glowing red coals, and stars came forth in sudden 
clearness from a misty sky. 

Later, the last vestige of fog disappeared, 
Mauna Kea's rugged peak rose in the distance, 
and grand Mauna Loa came forth unshrouded. 
Behind his majestic shoulder Jupiter was setting 
close to a crescent moon, and almost unearthly 
stillness lay over the world. Far below the cra- 
ter was smoking vigorously, and close at hand 
the ground at every pore breathed white steam, 
quickly absorbed into a dry and silent night. 
Grass and ferns were full of insects singing or 
chirping or scraping their nocturnal music — little 



KILAUEA 87 



songs in the grass which, emphasizing the silence, 
might have seemed in far-away Massachusetts, 
but for the surrounding scene, so foreign to that 
placid land. Yet even here, on distant Hawaii, 

" A minor nation celebrates 
Its unobtrusive mass," 

and the same sky overarches all. 



CHAPTER X 



A POI LUNCHEON 



Those palates who .... 

Must have inventions to delight the taste. 

Pericles, i. 4, 

As rice is the national dish of Japan, so a 
certain vegetable concoction already mentioned, 
called ^poiy has that high distinction in Hawaii. 
Prepared in a variety of ways, each, to the aver- 
age visitor, is less alluring than the other. 

When the members of a native family are seen 
happily clustered about a large central bowl, dip- 
ping contentedly therefrom with two fingers 
(under some circumstances three) a viscous sub- 
stance of nondescript color, which seems largely 
composed of an indifferent quality of yeast and 
mucilage, one may be tolerably sure they are in- 
dulging in the questionable delights of this deli- 
cacy. 

A charming invitation to partake of a poi 
luncheon, given in our honor, and under most 
delightful circumstances, had been accepted at a 
ranch on the way back to Punaluu. Perhaps the 
unfavorable verdict on a nation's staple might be 
reversed. 



A POI LUNCHEON 89 

In a radiantly sunny morning good-bys were 
said to Kilauea's height, and the old stage, saddle 
horses and riders, and two adventurous pedes- 
trians started downward, past dewy wild roses, 
accompanied by countless bird-songs under a sap- 
phire sky. So distinct was the crater floor, seven 
hundred feet below, that its very lava wrinkles 
could be seen ; the sulphur cracks steamed inces- 
santly close at hand, but the slopes of Mauna 
Loa lay clear and unveiled in early sunshine, 
without so much as a bit of hanging cirrus on the 
crown to suggest a lingering suspicion that his 
great fires might still be ready to spring forth in 
renewed splendor. The mighty mountain grew 
more impressive with every hour ; and a belt of 
cloud halfway up the peak added to the apparent 
height of Mauna Kea. 

Vegetation became more scarce as Volcano 
House was left farther behind on the road to 
Kapapala Ranch. Pele's scarlet flowers on their 
scrubby trees glowed finely in the morning bright- 
ness, and young shoots low on the ground, called 
by the natives liko lehua^ showed all their top- 
most leaves in no less brilliant masses. Small 
blue flowers known as ioi grew on tall stalks all 
the rough way, and songs and stories varied the 
jolting ride. 

An oasis amid volcanic desolation, the Ranch 
seemed a charmed spot, even lovelier than at our 



90 CORONA AND CORONET 

first visit. Within its outer gate bright green 
grass and a few old trees greeted eyes weary of 
endless acres of pahoehoe ; still farther, the house 
nestled in gardens like some tropic flower. Fuch- 
sias hung their blossoms high above our heads, 
avenues of tall coleus led into mazy labyrinths of 
bloom, and friendly welcomes awaited us on shady 
verandas. 

For the benefit of guests unaccustomed to Ha- 
waiian ceremonies, everything was done in a 
style as distinctively native as might be consist- 
ent with comfort. In an imu (underground oven) 
beyond the garden, young pigs and chickens 
had been cooking for two or three hours, del- 
icately wrapped in ki (or ti) leaves against red- 
hot stones, between layers of vegetables — the 
whole covered with earth. Men, experts in an 
art now dying out, were removing from the pit 
the various edibles so daintily cooked that they 
hardly held in shape while transported to the 
house. 

Luncheon was served on the wide lanai (ve- 
randa), each chair being thickly draped with leis. 
Roses were everywhere, an undesirable insect 
which has nearly exterminated Honolulu roses not 
then having reached Hawaii. To be thoroughly 
native, the company should have had no chairs, 
but it was not deemed necessary to submit the 
guests to so thoroughly un-American a position 



A POI LUNCHEON 91 

as sitting flat upon the floor ; so that single detail 
was omitted. 

The luncheon was lavish, even without refer- 
ence to poi, served in various forms. The proper 
method of eating it with two fingers from a bowl 
was successfully imitated ; still, though more pal- 
atable than before, one of the guests continued 
to regard this vegetable with suspicion. Its color 
is against it, granite gray not being an attractive 
tint in articles of diet. 

Under the inspiration of the feast many pictur- 
esque tales of life in the old days were told. 
Hours for state calls were from three o'clock in 
the morning until nine or ten, and royalty wore 
superb capes and helmets of yellow feathers. 
Each bird (the 0-6) had but two tiny tufts of these 
feathers under its black wings ; and as this dec- 
oration began to extend gradually to persons of 
lower rank than chiefs, the plumage soon became 
very scarce. When the bird was caught and 
his golden ornaments pulled out, he was set free, 
without that slaughter of innocents practiced in 
more civilized lands. As time went on, flowers 
for personal decoration came into general use, 
thus probably originating the graceful custom 
now shared by all classes of wearing green or 
flowery leis. 

Young girls of high family attended missionary 
schools, being taught many useful arts and' pre- 



92 CORONA AND CORONET 

cepts ; one maiden was especially impressed by 
three rules of conduct : in after life she must 
neither dance nor drink wine, nor must she do 
anything without her husband's permission. 

When this little Hawaiian girl, married soon 
after leaving school, arrived in Honolulu as the 
bride of a chieftain, the Queen waited upon her 
at dewy dawn (while the bridegroom paid his re- 
spects to the King), inviting her to breakfast at 
the palace — a gracious royal command. But 
true to training, she replied that while it would 
give her the greatest pleasure to accept, she could 
not do so without first asking her husband — a 
form of answer entirely novel in all the royal ex- 
perience. 

When healths were drunk at state banquets, the 
little bride still remembered her instructions, and 
refrained from touching her glass, a surprising 
performance to the king, at whose side she sat. 
But when the young husband finally learned of 
these eccentricities, he speedily reduced the three 
rules to one, no less definite. Hastening at the 
next banquet to obey him when a health was 
toasted, she innocently drank the whole contents 
of her glass at once. The remainder of that feast 
now lies in her mind as but a confused shadow of 
memory. 

A charming little boy in whose veins runs the 
blood of many nationalities had listened all his 



A POI LUNCHEON 93 

life to tales of past days told him by an old chief ; 
he repeated many of them after luncheon in his 
sweet, childish voice, the following one written as 
he narrated it, in his own words : — 

"The son of King Kamehameha shot a great 
many arrows at the bread-fruit trees, which took 
away their juice and spoiled them. So he had to 
be sent away to the island of Lanai, and there he 
found some hobgoblins who planned to kill him. 
They asked him where he was going to sleep that 
night, and he said, *In the big waves.' So in the 
night they went out to the big waves, but could 
not find him, and were drowned. 

" In the morning the others asked him why he 
did not sleep, as he had said, in the big waves ; and 
he replied they were so large he decided to sleep in 
the little waves. The next night they asked him 
and he said, * In the big thorns.' So they went 
after him, and a good many were stuck on the 
big thorns and killed. And when the survivors 
asked him in the morning why he was not there, 
he said, *The little thorns were more comfortable.' 
Then he decided they must be trying to kill him ; 
so the next night he got the rest of the hobgob- 
lins into a house, and they thought it must be for 
some grand entertainment ; and then he stuck all 
their eyes together with breadfruit and burned up 
the house. 

" So after that he was safe." 



94 CORONA AND CORONET 

As the pleasant shadows lengthened, kindly 
friends gathered under the trees at the gate, send- 
ing cheery aloha (farewells) far down the grassy 
road, as the uncertain stage bore us once more 
to the outer barren. Surrounded by friends and 
flowers, a deep -blue tropical sea, vast volcanic 
mountain slopes, and the soft, sweet atmosphere 
of enchanted Hawaii, even poi became poetic in 
retrospect. 

Again we were in sight of the blossoming 
white poppies of Pahala, the rusty little engine 
having waited until we chose to arrive. The sea 
stretched blue to the horizon, white surf still 
tumbled grandly on the black beach ; and after 
Ah He's appetizing supper, another exciting trip 
through the breakers (again, a so-called "quiet" 
sea, which merely did not wholly capsize the 
boats) brought us on board the Hall, peacefully 
anchored beyond the rush and roar of waters and 
encircling reefs. All night our steady way was 
ploughed northward, past the barren Hawaiian 
shores toward our first landing the next afternoon. 

Near the beach at Kailua lie the ruins of a lava 
fort, built by Kuakini long ago ; and great Kame- 
hameha the First once lived here in a grass hut, 
on the site of which Kuakini (called by foreigners 
Governor Adams) built later a house of lava and 
cement, the broken walls of which are still stand- 
ing. Once a large native population filled this 



A POI LUNCHEON 95 

town, and a missionary church, whose square 
tower rises near at hand, is the first built on the 
island. A large house with double verandas is 
still the property of the Queen Dowager Kapio- 
lani, widow of Kalakaua. 

But in addition to historic remains, as we sipped 
cups of tea in the shade of an airy lanai, we wit- 
nessed a unique sight — the apparently cruel 
native method of bringing half-tamed cattle on 
board for shipment to Honolulu. Confined in 
small pens or yards on the beach, one or two at 
a time are first lassoed ; and with men on horse- 
back in front dragging them with .main strength 
by a rope attached to their horns, others behind 
cracking long whips, the terrified creatures are 
driven, galloping madly, into the surf, and forced 
to swim out to small boats waiting beyond the 
breakers. Tied to the edge by their horns, still in 
the water, usually eight on each gunwale, they 
are rowed slowly out to the steamer, and hoisted 
on board by block and tackle. Half-drowned and 
quite subdued by fear and pain, they stand in 
long, shivering lines, on the lower deck ; if a horn 
breaks off or pulls out, no matter. They will be 
killed in a few days. 

Native houses and straggling vegetation, with 
great Hualalai rising over eight thousand feet in 
the background, afforded characteristic setting 
for the lively scenes on the beach. Natives in 



96 CORONA AND CORONET 

big, picturesque hats wreathed with flowers were 
riding recklessly back and forth on high saddles, a 
variety of animals were adding their own voices to 
a composite chorus, — squeaking, crowing, neigh- 
ing, bellowing, squealing, — and children covered 
the sand ; it was a gala day. Palms stood up tall 
and tropical in the warm air, and soft-lying cloud 
began to drift low down on the mountain-side. 

Great lava-flows and barren shores on the home- 
ward trip looked more familiar since we had pene- 
trated the very heart of a country strange with 
sharp contrasts and endless charm. And now we 
were leaving it — to Hawaii's weird island good- 
by; with its grimness, its subUmity, its steaming 
promises and fiery fulfillments, its tropic beauty 
and black devastation, a long good-by. 



/ 



CHAPTER XI 

WITH KATE FIELD 

Death is the crown of life. 

Young. 

A fiery soul, which, working out its way, 

Fretted the pigmy body to decay 

And o'er informed the tenement of clay. 

Dkyden. 

At Kaawaloa more cocoanut - palms and na- 
tives ; and a small boat put off from shore, bring- 
ing Miss Field on board, weary with arduous 
research into the condition of the native island- 
ers. Lack of proper food and attention, a se- 
vere cold contracted through exposure to varying 
temperatures at different altitudes, and gen- 
eral fatigue had left obvious traces on her pale 
face. 

"Riding too hard," the purser said, after he 
had shown her to the stateroom she had re- 
served. 

Miss Field's wide acquaintance, the interest in 
her felt in all parts of the world, and constant 
questions as to her last hours on earth have 
caused the hope that as I was with her during 
that memorable time, although an experience of 



CORONA AND CORONET 



deep pathos amid prevailing light-heartedness, its 
narration may not prove inharmonious, but wel- 
come, even if sadly so, to many hearts. 

Comfortably settled in her berth. Miss Field 
asked that our good Doctor, whose merciful ser- 
vice was in constant demand for ills more or 
less serious, should come in to advise about her 
health. Very serious after his few moments* 
chat, he reported that she would enjoy seeing a 
caller. Having had but slight acquaintance with 
her, I nevertheless accepted her invitation, being 
warmly, even enthusiastically greeted. Extreme 
pallor had given way to bright but feverish color. 
To an unprofessional eye she looked better. 

" Oh," she exclaimed, " it is such comfort to 
be on a boat again, though I usually hate a boat ; 
but to be going somewhere actually again, and to 
see white people once more, and up-to-date white 
people at that ! I have seen natives, natives, 
until I am completely worn out ! " — her naturally 
brilliant manner beginning to reassert itself. 

" Talk about the quiet and pleasures of the 
country," she went on. " It's the noisiest place 
on earth — chickens cackling, roosters crowing, 
dogs barking at all hours ! " 

The natives themselves and the political situa- 
tion she discussed warmly. 

"Too much education of the masses," she as- 
serted. " The public school system is responsi- 



WITH KA TE FIELD 99 

ble for a great deal of evil, just as it is in Amer- 
ica." 

" On the frequently quoted principle," said her 
companion, *' that it spoils a great many good 
cooks, and makes a superfluity of poor teachers ?" 

" Exactly," she answered. *' It 's all a mistake. 
But they are lovely, amiable people. I 've en- 
joyed Hawaii, but I am pursued by Kamehame- 
ha's fishponds. I can't strike any settlement on 
the island but that one of those malarial holes is 
pointed out to me. 

" When I was at Kailua I did think they would 
be intelligent enough to avoid them, but I had no 
sooner arrived than I began to smell malaria, so 
I knew there was another historic fishpond close 
by." 

She had evidently talked as rnuch as she 
ought, but as I rose to go she remonstrated. 

" It 's such a comfort to see you," she said, 
pressing my hand. ** I am only tired all out. 
Riding all sorts of horses (for my own got a sore 
back), and tramping over their lava beds and 
looking into the condition of these natives. Rid- 
ing astride is all right, but there can be too much 
of it. Yes, I am too tired to do any more just 
now." 

She lay back with her cheeks very pink and 
began to ask about our expedition to Japan, in 
which she seemed greatly interested. 



100 CORONA AND CORONET 

In passing Keauhou, where Kamehameha the 
Third was born, a handsome native came on 
board to see Miss Field. There is no white fam- 
ily in the town, and the Hawaiians there called 
her Kela wahine naanao (that learned woman). 
He did not remain long on board, and she was 
persuaded to rest quietly for a while. Toward 
evening I made another short call, during which 
her characteristically sparkling way of putting 
things was unusually manifest. As it grew dark, 
a few native Hawaiians gathered on deck near 
her door, singing sweet and plaintive melodies, 
accompanied by guitar and ukulele. I asked if it 
disturbed her. 

" Oh, no," she answered. " Music is Paradise 
to me, and I shall sleep all the better for it." 

And, indeed, she did sleep through the even- 
ing, apparently with much peacefulness ; but the 
Doctor, seeing that she grew worse, stayed all 
night by her side. About two o'clock a decided 
change occurred, and early in the beautiful morn- 
ing he told me that he had been fighting for her 
life ever since she came on board, obstinate pneu- 
monia his antagonist. With little hope, from the 
first, of conquering, he had continued to give her 
stimulants on the chance of sustaining the slight 
strength remaining. He thought she must have 
had the disease for several days, while still ex- 
posed to constant hard riding and all tempera- 



WITH KATE FIELD 



tures. Naturally it had made irrevocable head- 
way. 

The truth was very hard for me to tell her — 
that in all human probability she must die before 
another sunset. Miss Field listened in almost a 
dazed way at first. Then she said, — '■ 

** Yes, yes — give me time. I must think of 
so many things." She lay back for a moment in 
strange stupor, while I quietly waited. At last, 
arousing her gently, — 

** Miss Field, you would better tell me the 
names and addresses of any friends to whom you 
would like to have me write," I said, wishing 
fervently to aid in some strong way the ener- 
getic soul still struggling to keep manifold inter- 
ests within a loosening grasp. 

"Yes, yes, I must," she replied, giving me an 
address in Washington, which she spelled out 
carefully and accurately. Then she began to 
dictate a letter, clearly enough at first, but soon 
confused. 

" It will need a lot of editing," she finally said 
wearily, while fragmentary sentences relative to 
her work for the Chicago " Times-Herald " fell 
at intervals. The Doctor continued stimulants, 
but she sank more and more deeply into uncon- 
sciousness. 

All through the morning she aroused a little 
as I spoke, but it was evident that she was rap- 



102 CORONA AND CORONET 

idly dying, and her breathing became very la- 
bored. As we passed Maui she suddenly opened 
her eyes and looked out. The cliffs are bold 
and rugged, and the mountains very impressive, 
with cloud-shadows chasing over them, and be- 
tween island and steamer lay a bright blue strip 
of white-capped sea. 

" Oh, how beautiful ! " she exclaimed, and for 
a moment her eyes brightened clearly. 

Holding her hot hand, and longing unspeak- 
ably to give her a little human love to reach 
heaven on, I sat there all the sunny, sparkling 
morning. A few necessary addresses and bits of 
practical information were plucked at intervals 
out of the rising tide of death's lethargy, when 
suddenly Miss Field looked up with entire nat- 
uralness. 

" What did you say was the name of your ex- 
pedition, and what are you going for } " 

"The Amherst eclipse expedition," I replied, 
"and we go to Japan to observe a total eclipse of 
the sun August 9th." 

"The Amherst eclipse expedition," she said 
brightly; and those were her last words on 
earth. 

She simply slept more and more soundly as 
her soul drifted farther out on unknown waters. 
All this time the captain of the Hall had been 
pushing the steamer to the utmost, to reach 



WITH KATE FIELD 103 

Honolulu if possible before Miss Field should 
die. 

As we neared the harbor all her scattered be- 
longings were put together, — saddle, whip, walk- 
ing-shoes all scratched and scarred with rough 
lava — even her possessions looked tired and 
helpless, lonely and discouraged. We landed 
much ahead of usual time. 

Soon after the Hall came alongside the wharf, 
a stretcher was brought from the Adams, upon 
which Miss Field was tenderly carried to the resi- 
dence of Dr. McGrew, a friend who had been 
very kind during her entire stay in the city. In 
a beautiful open cottage under the palms in his 
grounds, she peacefully stopped breathing a few 
minutes later — a sad home coming for us to 
our fair Coronet. 

Next day a large and appreciative company 
gathered in the Central Union Church, to say 
good-by to the earthly presence of this bright 
woman who had yielded her life pathetically in 
behalf of a strange people. As the casket, heaped 
with tropical flowers, was carried out, the organ 
softly played *' Home, Sweet Home," and thought 
of her real home, after years of brave and unremit- 
ting effort, brought unaccustomed tears. Miss 
Field had never acknowledged herself defeated, 
and who shall call this unfinished work and lonely 
death defeat — in face of an illimitable future ? 



CHAPTER XII 

A MID -PACIFIC COLLEGE 

Tutor'd in the rudiments 
Of many desperate studies, 

Shakespeare, As You Like It, v. 4. 

With our last days in Honolulu, the fifty-fifth 
year of Oahu College was closing ; for so early 
in the history of their peaceful conquest of the 
islands, begun in 1820, did the fathers of civili- 
zation think it necessary to broaden their educa- 
tional resources. 

Liliha, wife of Boki, the then ruler of Oahu, 
was evidently a woman of force, if also of energy 
misdirected. Plotting to overthrow and remodel 
everything in general, the government incident- 
ally, she has left a somewhat unenviable record. 
But feeling on one occasion unexpectedly gen- 
erous, she joined her husband in presenting to 
missionaries the site for Punahou school, now 
Oahu College. Barren and unproductive then, 
no one could have foreseen its present tropic 
beauty. Liliha's portrait represents her leaning 
affectionatel}'' upon the shoulder of her lord — he 
in mighty helmet, she in a necklace of human 




BOKI, RULER OF OAHIJ IN 1820, AND LILIHA HIS WIFE 



A MID-PACIFIC COLLEGE 105 

hair. Of the two, her face is decidedly the 
stronger. 

From its modest beginning fifty-five years be- 
fore, the institution has steadily grown in scope 
and influence. And now another building was 
to be dedicated to high ideals, — beautiful Pau- 
ahi Hall, yet one more gift of the Hon. C. R. 
Bishop, whose liberality seems limitless. The 
ceremonies were held in the new hall, on the 
evening of the 21st of May. The fine building 
of native stone, with its semi-tropical style of 
architecture, the brilliant electric lights, the 
polished hard-wood interior finish, and the paint- 
ings, etchings, casts, and books, and the band 
of musicians, were far from presenting what the 
average American would have imagined a typical 
scene of mid-Pacific civilization. 

The Rev. Daniel Dole landed on the island, 
2 1 St of May, 1841, and began his work of in- 
struction and enlightenment. A school was 
opened the same year, with a small class of chil- 
dren, in a little adobe building a few yards east 
of where Dole Hall, built in 1848, now stands; 
and this was the real beginning, the birthplace, 
of Punahou School and Oahu College, of which 
Mr. Dole was one of the founders and the first 
head. This ripe scholar and Christian gentleman, 
father of the late President of the Hawaiian Re- 
public, gave an impetus and tone to the school 



io6 CORONA AND CORONET 

which caused its pupils to take high rank in 
whatever college they might subsequently enter 
in the United States. Habits of accuracy and 
literary taste were as valuable then as now, and 
these were bestowed in liberal measure at Puna- 
hou. The name means "new spring," and this 
it became in all senses. The high thinking of 
those early days must have meant very plain liv- 
ing, for the pupils paid but fifty cents a week for 
their board. 

A permanent schoolhouse was opened on the 
nth of July, 1842, — a building of one story, 
the ground plan like the letter E, inclosing two 
square courts, with schoolroom in the centre. 
This building, also of adobe, its timbers and raft- 
ers of wood from lovely Manoa Valley, roof of 
thatch from Round Top, and plaster and white- 
wash from coral limestone and sand of Kewalo 
reefs, was purely a native product. An opening 
with about a dozen pupils between the ages of 
seven and twelve was not a very striking inaug- 
uration, but it marked the happy point when 
children would no longer have to be sent around 
the Horn for an American education, spending 
years away from lonely parents. 

In 1854 the school became a college, not with 
rank corresponding to Yale or Amherst or Wil- 
liams, but carrying the student about to the 
junior year of those institutions, and equipping 



A MID-PACIFIC COLLEGE 107 

him with peculiar fitness for the more liberal 
development which they could offer. In 1863 
nearly one hundred and thirty acres of the land 
of Punahou, with buildings and improvements, 
were deeded to the trustees of Oahu College. Its 
most constant and generous patron has been Mr. 
Bishop, whose devotion to the interests of the in- 
stitution as well as to every noble cause in the 
islands is a conspicuous factor in its history and 
success. 

By 1864, when President Mills resigned, the 
college had been placed upon, a self-supporting 
basis, though the genuine and happy turning- 
point in its fortunes occurred in 1881 at the cele- 
bration of its fortieth anniversary, when a large 
fund was raised by alumni and friends. In 1882 
another large sum was added to the building 
fund, and the following year the main building 
was erected, in 1884 the Bishop Hall of Science, 
and in 1885 the new President's House. By 1889 
the endowment fund received ^56,000, of which 
about two thirds had been given by Mr. Bishop. 

Shortly after Mr. Frank A. Hosmer, of the 
class of 1875 at Amherst College, became Presi- 
dent, the semi-centennial was appropriately cele- 
brated, in 1 89 1. The orator of that occasion 
was the late and well -beloved General Arm- 
strong, who in a brilliant and characteristic 
speech gave many, incidents of old days when 



I08 CORONA AND CORONET 

he was a Punahou boy; while Professor Alex- 
ander, the distinguished historian of the islands, 
and for seven years President of the college, told 
its story in his own delightful manner. 

Since then Oahu College and its preparatory 
school have gone steadily forward, becoming 
more of a power with every year. In 1893 Presi- 
dent Hosmer suggested, in view of increasing 
needs of the institution, that a new academic hall 
be built ; plans and drawings were submitted by 
various architects, every design, however, carry- 
ing out the idea of a solid stone pier rising from 
the foundation to form a tower for a telescope, 
thus giving all possible stability to an elevated 
observatory. A compromise between two of the 
plans was made, the result being a very effec- 
tive and handsome building costing a little less 
than ^80,000, — another superb monument to 
Mr. Bishop. 

An island of volcanic rock, varied by a few 
coral reefs around the edges, is not the most pro- 
lific spot for good building materials, most of the 
stone being porous and not impervious to water, 
while the beautiful koa wood is so hard that it is 
impracticable on account of expense of working it. 
Since timber for all frame houses is brought from 
the American coast, a comparatively simple house 
is of much greater cost than in this country. 
Many specimens of native stone were submitted 



A MID-PACIFIC COLLEGE 109 

for use in the new Pauahi Hall, and the building 
committee finally accepted a compact gray stone 
found at the entrance of Manoa Valley, not only 
very handsome in itself, but giving evidence of 
entire power to withstand water. 

The grounds, with their mass of tropical foli- 
age, the fine algaroba trees, and avenues of 
palms, were in gala dress for the dedication cere- 
monies, and the formal transference of Pauahi to 
the college faculty. The address of the even- 
ing was given by the distinguished President of 
the Republic, the Hon. Sanford B. Dole, who 
was greeted with prolonged and enthusiastic ap- 
plause. His delightful speech was full of the 
best spirit of modern Hawaii, reaching always for 
the highest, yet permeated throughout by the 
poetry bequeathed from the older days. 

After the address, the keys of the new build- 
ing were delivered, with an interesting speech 
by the Hon. W. R. Castle, to President Hosmer, 
who responded with feeling tribute to those de- 
voted men in the past who made possible the 
development of to-day, a growth probably far be- 
yond what they would have dared to dream in 
the simple beginnings of their time. A fine 
organ, presented by Mrs. S. N. Castle as a me- 
morial to her husband, was played during the 
evening, and there were selections by the Col- 
lege Glee Club and an orchestra lately inaugu- 
rated by the students. 



CORONA AND CORONET 



The wonderful Hawaiian climate, never too 
hot and never too cold, appeared that evening at 
its best, and will always add its indefinable but 
no less haunting charm to Oahu memories. 

Strolling across the grounds under the tropical 
foliage and by the light of swinging Japanese lan- 
terns, we reached the President's House, where 
an informal reception was held. 

This only night on shore at Honolulu was fol- 
lowed by a lovely morning, dewy and fragrant, 
amid trees and vines, flowers and shrubs of the 
college grounds, musical with bird-songs, and 
recalling the choicest of New England's midsum- 
mer dawns. A day full of meaning to Oahu 
College was this last one for the students in the 
old historic building, quite inadequate now, yet 
full of tender association. Their feelings were 
not of exultation merely, in entering a wider life 
in modern environment. Eager and intelligent 
faces, and the appreciative attention accorded a 
short talk given them at prayers, betokened a 
waiting future full of progress and achievement. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI 

But Sir Launfal sees naught save the gruesome thing, 
The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone 
That cowers beside him, a thing as lone 
And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas 
In the desolate horror of his disease. 

Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal. 

Sir Launfal " gave the leper to eat and 
drink," and despite the poverty of his repast, it 
seemed to the gray and gruesome recipient like 
fine bread and red wine — 

" For a god goes with it, and makes it store 
To the soul that was starving in darkness before." 

And notwithstanding their ignorance and un- 
cleanness, the Hawaiian lepers are treated with 
care and generosity deserving more than grate- 
ful recognition from a glorified community. In- 
deed, it is said that life on Molokai is now con- 
sidered so desirable by many natives that they 
have been known to feign the disease in order to 
be taken there, supported by the Government in 
ease and idleness. 

Leprosy, not indigenous but imported, was 
first observed in the islands in 1853. When its 



CORONA AND CORONET 



spread, in 1865, was thought alarming, an act 
was passed isolating cases in separate establish- 
ments. A year later about one hundred and 
forty were sent to Molokai, but rules were not 
very strictly enforced. If one only of a mar- 
ried couple developed the disease, the other was 
allowed to go also to Molokai. On accession of 
King Lunalilo in 1873, strenuous efforts were 
made by his new cabinet to carry into effect a 
law of absolute seclusion, and over five hundred 
persons were sent to the settlement. This of 
course excited bitter opposition, but it was in 
line with the enlightened policy of this monarch, 
who lived to reign only a little over a year. 

Now, although healthy wives or husbands may 
not accompany their diseased consorts to the set- 
tlement, marriages on Molokai among the lepers 
themselves are not forbidden. Some children 
born in that retreat are actually healthy, and 
without trace of the dread disease. When on 
their official visits the Board of Health bring 
back to Honolulu all such cases, if the parents 
consent, and they are reared and educated away 
from infection. Often they do not develop lep- 
rosy at all in after years. If the unmistakable 
signs appear, they must return to their birth- 
place. What a weird and terrible meeting be- 
tween parents and children so tragically re- 
united ! 



THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI 113 

When the Board of Health start for Molokai, 
heartrending scenes often occur as the steamer 
is about to sail, — friends and relatives of lepers 
crowd the gangway, begging permission to visit 
afflicted comrades. But quarantine is necessa- 
rily strict and unswerving. 

Without seeing practical means of gratifying 
his desire, the Doctor had always hoped to visit 
the leper settlement. He remarked pathetically 
that any suggestion of his wish was far from 
popular on board the Coronet, being met either 
with stern silence, or browbeating and discour- 
agement, — even by assurance that he would 
certainly be thrown overboard upon his return, 
should he finally succeed in reaching Molokai, 
goal of his hopes. 

But in this often unreasonable world where 
Fortune brazenly chooses her favorites regard- 
less of merit, sterling worth, probably by mis- 
take, is sometimes rewarded. One of the cus- 
tomary tours of the Board was due a day or two 
before the Coronet set sail for Japan, the good 
Doctor received a cordial invitation to join the 
medical men on their trip, and regardless of a 
dire fate upon his return he accepted with alac- 
rity. 

Upon the unfortunate lepers Government 
spends annually ;^ 150,000, or one tenth of its en- 
tire income. The Doctor's own journal, which 



114 CORONA AND CORONET 

he has kindly given me, is only second in inter- 
est to a personal visit. He rowed away from the 
Coronet on the 22d May, ..." after receiving all 
sorts of warnings and good counsels, and scram- 
bled up on the wharf of the Inter-Island Steam 
Navigation Company. Already a few passengers 
had arrived, and some officers of the Board of 
Health were there to keep back the natives, who 
were beseeching in Hawaiian, vainly attempting 
to secure passage to see their friends and rela- 
tives on the island. It was a pitiful sight, — the 
dearest ties of life severed by imported disease, 
and Molokai, so near and yet so far, forever un- 
visited except by acquiring the dread malady. 
Their appeals, addressed to each officer in turn, 
could be met by nothing but the prompt refusal 
of a strict quarantine. 

" Dr. Emerson, head and front of the arrange- 
ments, gave me my pass, — which stated that 
I went for scientific purposes, — and then we 
pushed on our way up the gang plank. 

"The leper settlement had a great deal of inter- 
est to me medically, but I had become acquainted 
with the disease only through scanty textbooks. 
To me as much as to one of the laity it repre- 
sented an unclean and unattractive malady, and 
although I had no fear of contagion, I anticipated 
that my sympathy would be strongly roused. 
Not knowing how the disease would appear, I felt 



THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI 115 

I should be glad to have the inspection of the 
first unfortunate over, so that I could study its 
effects in different stages without morbid interest. 

"The steamer anchored at 5.30 a. m., about a 
quarter of a mile from the shore. As I looked 
from my stateroom window I could see lepers 
congregated on shore, and surrounded by saddled 
horses, ready for our service. The settlement, 
composed of neat white frame houses, looked 
more attractive than many coast towns of these 
islands. 

** A band in white uniforms played characteris- 
tic native melodies, adding an element of melan- 
choly which well suited the scene ; for these 
people were trying to make the best of an op- 
portunity afforded by the semi-annual tour of 
inspection. To them it meant a gala day, to us 
a sorry spectacle. 

'* After breakfast we were rowed ashore, and 
on reaching the wharf I caught my first glimpse 
of a leper. A small boy about twelve years old 
was comfortably seated on a rock. His face was 
rounded and enlarged, yet withered. His eyes, 
deep set beneath knotted eyebrows, and the nose 
(partly because the bones were destroyed, and 
partly from contrast with the swollen cheeks) 
looked almost lacking. His mouth, represented 
by a slit, was opened and shut when talking, in 
a peculiarly lifeless manner, and hypertrophied 



ii6 CORONA AND CORONET 

ears hung down like diminutive elephant' s-ears. 
On drawing nearer I saw that his face was cov- 
ered with tubercles varying in size from a pea to 
a bantam's ^^g, giving the appearance of a target 
for mischievous boys' putty balls. Eyebrows 
and eyelashes had fallen out ; hands and feet 
were swollen, and the ring and little fingers of 
each hand had fallen off to their bases, while 
both great toes were bandaged as if in the same 
process of decay. Soon we were near enough to 
see similar characteristics in a hundred faces. 

" On landing we walked to the so-called club- 
house, and while the officers of the Board of 
Health proceeded to business, the rest of us sat 
upon the porch, admired by a motley crowd of 
lepers, and entertained by the band, which played 
very well. It consists of ten musicians, some of 
whom belonged to the old Royal Band, and the 
leader still appeared in a cap with embroidered 
crown which he wore in his former proud posi- 
tion. He was a good-looking fellow, and bore 
no evidence of disease at this distance. All the 
rest were unmistakable lepers, and the man who 
played the flageolet was grotesquely horrible. 
Some of the instruments were fingered by hands 
which seemed too deformed to be useful. The 
bass horn was held by pressure of the arm 
against the body, as the player's left hand was so 
withered and drawn out of shape that it was use- 



THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI 117 

less ; and as he had but two good fingers on his 
right hand, they had to be shifted in managing 
the three stops of the instrument. Another mu- 
sician had lost an eye, and one limped as if his 
foot were nearly gone ; while taken as a whole, 
the distorted faces gave a weird background to 
the performance. 

" The assistant superintendent has been on the 
island as a leper for twenty years. He has the 
anaesthetic form, showing no tubercles or lost 
members; but his face was shiny, sunken, and 
like wax. When talking, his lower jaw dropped, 
and to close his mouth a distorted hand was 
pressed against the chin. 

'* The yard was packed with horses, and by nine 
o'clock lepers crowded amongst us, eagerly offer- 
ing their horses for us to ride across the country, 
a distance of six miles. Doctor Emerson saw that 
I secured a good horse, and our party cantered 
away. It was a delightful ride, although each of 
us was on a leper's horse, in a leper's saddle, 
and handling the same reins that the diseased 
hands of a leper had handled ; we forgot about it 
in the pleasure of the moment. Away above us 
rose a sheer precipice, and to the left lay the sea, 
making natural barriers shutting in the settle- 
ment. 

"The Baldwin Home for boys is a neat little 
village, named for Mrs. Baldwin, who gave ^5000 



ii8 CORONA AND CORONET 

for its foundation. To this the Government has 
added ^loooand superintended the building of 
a pretty quadrangle. The frame dormitories ac- 
commodate eight or ten boys each, and in the 
centre of the square is a grass plot. The Gov- 
ernment has great pride in the neatness of this 
home, and has spent much money in planting 
trees and shrubs about it. 

*' The authorities took pleasure in pointing out 
the comfortable arrangements, frequently stop- 
ping to indicate some of the worst cases, which 
all look more or less alike ; but one young boy 
I shall never forget, with face so enlarged by tu- 
berosities that his whole head appeared tremen- 
dous. His lips were so thickened and hardened 
as to make them from one to one and one half 
inches in thickness, and when they parted in 
talking the appearance was that of a wooden 
mechanism in action. The corners of his mouth 
became continuous with deep furrows in either 
cheek which made the mouth apparently of huge 
dimensions, extending into the middle of his 
cheeks. This with elongated ears and knotted 
face gave him an effect which I could liken to 
nothing human, but rather to a Chinese god of 
war. His small body corresponded poorly with 
the monstrous head and facial senility. 

" Brother Button was introduced to me here, 
where he has made his home for the last eight 



THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI 119 

years, in service of the lepers. He has done a 
great deal to make their lives happier and to ar- 
range details of the home. Nobody knows what 
led him to take up this life, but it is reported by 
gossip that he was disappointed in love, or per- 
haps he committed some crime for which his 
conscience is now making him do penance. He 
is about forty years old, and his services are ren- 
dered without inducement or remuneration. 

"Father Damien's tomb stands across the road 
beside the church he made with his own hands. 
He died of the disease contracted while minister- 
ing here.^ 

"On the way back we visited the crater of an 
extinct volcano, and reaching the club-house we 
found luncheon, sent ashore from the Iwalani. 
Then I strolled into the female quarters, only to 
find arrangements the neatest and most attrac- 
tive on the island. This portion of the work is 
overseen by four Catholic sisters from Syracuse, 
New York, with their Mother Superior. Their 
handiwork is apparent in all the dormitories, and 
their influence in the figures of two young girls 
kneeling before the miniature altar of the chapel. 
The sister who guided me about responded very 
politely to my questions, and I could not but ad- 
mire her quiet and attractive manner. 

1 Another monument in his honor sent by the Prince of 
Wales stands near the main landing. 



120 CORONA AND CORONET 

"In one of the dormitories I found the only- 
example of suffering which I saw at Molokai. 
The patient was middle-aged, her frame literally- 
wasted to a skeleton. She had not long to live, 
and her labored breathing was exaggerated by 
a wheezing which comes when membranes of 
throat and nose are attacked ; but a sorrier sight 
was her leper companion, who tried to support 
and fan her with crippled and bandaged hands. 

"The Board of Health were busy all day. 
Twice a year they are compelled to examine all 
children born here. Those pronounced clean are 
taken away, if the parents wish it, but their con- 
sent is not always obtained. 

" It was pitiful to see some of the young boys 
and girls on whom leprous spots were beginning 
to show, but to them it is only expected; and 
they have seen no other world than this. Mr. 
Mills and I went the rounds thoroughly, and as 
we had some time to spare took another horse- 
back ride. Two lepers accompanied us on either 
side as guides. 

"The settlement occupies six thousand acres of 
fertile land, where the large town of Kalaupapa 
was originally located, and includes the valley 
of Waikolu and the village of Kalawao. Sur- 
rounded by the sea on three sides, it is shut off 
on the fourth, toward the south, by cliffs two 
or three thousand feet high, — a beautiful spot 



THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI 



which would do credit to a more attractive popu- 
lation. 

" Rations are given out generously, and as no 
work is required, the lazy Hawaiian temperament 
is well suited. Their love of horses is gratified 
lavishly, for there are two horses for each man. 
To all outward appearance the lepers are better 
cared for than they would be at home ; and 
as they have no fear of leprosy as a disease, and 
contract it by their own neglect and filthiness, 
they also gradually die without pain or worry, 

" The painless character of this disease is cer- 
tainly very fortunate. The first parts of the 
body attacked are the nerves ; so that horrible 
deformities and loss of members surely accom- 
plish their result, though with no discomfort, 
such as would be expected. 

"I left the lepers of Molokai with less sym- 
pathy than I had anticipated ; but as the band 
played our farewell, I was saddened by the 
thought of their failure to realize their miser- 
able condition." 

On this return trip of the Iwalani twelve 
"clean" children were brought back, who may 
perhaps entirely escape the fate of their parents. 

" * Room for the leper ! Room ! ' And as he came 
The cry passed on, — ' Room for the leper ! 
Room ! ' 

And aside they stood, 



CORONA AND CORONET 



Matron and child, and pitiless manhood, all 
Who met him on his way, — and let him pass." 

No such feeling as we have always connected 
with this horrible disease, and which poets and 
novelists have sometimes treated in ghastly fash- 
ion, troubles the Hawaiian native. His lack of 
dread is often the means of his contracting the 
disease. Transmitted largely through the saliva, 
all the members of a family, clean and unclean, 
continue to dip their fingers in the common bowl 
of poi. Unlike the white leprosy of Syria, this 
form is, thus far, equally incurable. Its germ 
has been found, and something may ultimately 
be discovered to neutralize or destroy it. Curi- 
ously enough, leprosy alone does not cause death, 
though death usually comes sooner to those so 
afflicted, because of its general weakening effect 
on all the organs, rendering them peculiarly lia- 
ble to give way under slight strain from other 
diseases. 

The Doctor returned almost without protest, 
during the progress of a farewell reception on 
the Coronet to some of the friends who had so 
lavishly entertained its company on shore. 

The deck was draped with Hawaiian and 
American flags, and numberless pennants. Jap- 
anese lanterns hung thickly along the awning 
and among the green, while flowers and foliage 
filled every available spot. Cozy corners with 



THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI 123 

cushions and rugs appeared unexpectedly here 
and there, the gig plied back and forth to the 
wharf bringing guests, and a native orchestra 
played softly through the enchanted evening. 
Supper and dancing, songs and friendliness until 
midnight ; and then the quiet of a luminous 
tropical night, the Southern Cross dipping in the 
sea, the sweet life of the island a memory. 

Only a busy morning remained before the 
long voyage. After luncheon, guests assembled 
for good-bys. Huge baskets of fruit, enormous 
stems of ripening bananas, flowers in countless 
bouquets and nameless luxuriant masses covered 
every spot, and a hundred leis were tossed over 
hats and shoulders of the departing company, 
until each prospective voyager resembled an ani- 
mated tower of bloom. 

Then with last farewells, a few lingering hand- 
shakes from deck to dock — native boys all about 
diving for dimes — we were off with dipping 
colors from the Adams, and final salutes rever- 
berating. Lifting her white wings to the sum- 
mer wind, out through reefs and breaking surf 
the Coronet took flight, over brilliant blue and 
green and purple water into deep-sea indigo be- 
yond. 

President Dole accompanied us for a few miles 
in his yacht, but when he had finally to turn 
back, there were more dippings and salutes, with 



124 CORONA AND CORONET 

the Williams yell for him, and the Amherst 
cheer for the expedition. Then the yachts 
parted too far for sound of word, while Tantalus 
and Punch Bowl and fair Diamond Head grew 
indistinct — yet more misty with atmospheric 
distance, and finally disappeared in gathering 
twilight. With full hearts we said aloha to these 
beautiful islands, already like home to each of us, 
with their friendly faces, their pathetic music, 
their gentle language like running water, their 
unsolved problems, and their brooding charm. 



CHAPTER XIV 

FOUR WEEKS AT SEA 

Alone, alone, all, all alone, 
Alone in a wide, wide sea. 

Coleridge, A ncient Mariner. 

Illusion dwells forever with the wave. 

Emerson, Sea-shore. 

Westward and slightly south pointed the 
graceful bow of the Coronet, ever nearer the 
equator. A far southerly course would take full- 
est advantage of the regular trade-winds ; but 
before they were entirely upon us the days were 
hot, quiet, tropically lovely, the glassy sea spread- 
ing white and dreamy to a misty horizon. Now 
and then a sunbeam struck through the prevail- 
ing haze from some far-off rift, and then a spar- 
kling line, miles away, lay like silent surf break- 
ing on an invisible shore. 

With sea- water at 80° F., our days began by a 
plunge into the white bath-tank. Immediately 
after breakfast the awning was put up, impos- 
sible as it was to remain on deck a moment with- 
out it, in the heat and often blinding sunshine; 
and the great boom, swung far out over the 
water, was not shifted all day. Great was the 



26 CORONA AND CORONET 



heat, and the bananas, hanging in the shade, 
ripened apace — yet not too rapidly. 

Always a surprise when mid-forenoon luncheon 
appeared, regular tiffin at one seemed but a few 
minutes later ; when the afternoon had appar- 
ently but just begun, five o'clock tea was brought 
on deck- — chased by dinner. And then came 
long, warm evenings under the brilliant stars. 
Occasional sunsets were fine, but as a rule not as 
gorgeous as on the Atlantic. Twilights grew 
shorter, darkness following quickly after sunset. 

" One sun by day, by night ten thousand shine," 

but superb moonlight paled the glory of the 
Southern Cross rising higher above the horizon, 
the brilliant Scorpion, and all the tropic skies. 
Our nearest stellar neighbor. Alpha Centauri, be- 
came a distinct point of a new firmament. The 
nearest star ! And yet so far away that its light, 
if starting toward us now for the first time, 
would not reach the earth for over four years. 
And proportionally our old friend Polaris sank 
toward the northern sea-line with his tethered 
constellations ; even the tried and trusted Dipper 
descended alarmingly low, but at this season we 
never quite lost it. 

Night after night, in the warm darkness, the 
infinite southern skies full of strange suns grew 
in impressiveness and solemnity. As Kipling 



FOUR WEEKS AT SEA 127 

says of the marvelous Indian stars, they seemed 
not "all pricked in on one plane," but preserved 
their own perspective through the velvet black- 
ness. 

Distances and difficulties are never insur- 
mountable to the modern astronomer, with his 
splendid mechanical equipments. He questions 
the empyrean boldly, and little by little receives 
answer from illimitable space. Old observers 
contented themselves with studying motions and 
places of heavenly bodies; with long midnight 
vigils at their telescopes, and still longer compu- 
tations, until every inhabitant of space that could 
be seen by aid of their instruments had, in addi- 
tion to its own appointed path and position in the 
celestial vault, its corresponding place no less 
definitely in their columns of figures. But they 
knew nothing of what neighboring stars and 
planets are made; even the constitution of the 
sun was as a sealed book. 

Now, the triumphant "new astronomy" lays 
its daring finger on the most distant stars, find- 
ing in Aldebaran and Betelgeux elemental sub- 
stances not only identical with those closest to 
us on earth, but blazing as well in the majestic 
light of our own sun. Even the unformed nebu- 
lae, ghostly tenants of cosmic space, perhaps 
birthplace of systems yet to be, have yielded part 
of their filmy secrets to the insistent spectroscope. 



128 CORONA AND CORONET 

and one by one the mysteries of the universe are 
unfolding to the keen eyes and trained skill of 
modern astronomy. 

Once a galaxy of reticence, the chemistry of the 
stars is now known to be generically the same as 
that of the sun ; and depths of space unsounded 
by the telescope are brought by celestial photo- 
graphy to eager eyes of waiting astronomers. A 
wonderful sensitiveness in photographic plates 
takes cognizance of faintest light from unknown 
suns blazing uncomprehended millions of miles 
away, which no merely optical telescope, however 
powerful, can show, and which encourages no 
present hope that human eyes will ever be able 
to visualize in future ages. The invisible is 
brought before us with irrefutable evidence ; and 
distant wanderers through the stellar void which 
would otherwise have remained forever unseen 
are discovered, caught, and held for all time. 

" Silent as death the awful spaces lie " 

no less now than when to Immanuel Kant the 
starry heavens above were, with the moral law 
within, the most impressive concepts recognizable 
by the human mind. Warm foregrounds of vil- 
lages and fields, mountains and forests, soften and 
make remote the solemnity of the nightly sky. 
At sea each soul seems alone with eternal ver- 
ities. 



FOUR WEEKS AT SEA 129 

Sundays were quiet days of blue and gold, 
morning service read in the saloon as before, 
well attended by the sailors ; and long after- 
noons on the shaded deck, full of peace and liquid 
silence. 

Our sailing master pursued the even tenor of 
his way, undisturbed by changes of crew forced 
upon him at every port. The first mate had 
joined the Coronet at San Francisco, a bluff 
man with a mighty voice, and not above seizing 
a halyard in his grasp of iron if he detected a bit 
of lazy hauling among the men ; the second mate, 
a fair-haired Russian, reliable and resourceful, is 
now the Coronet's trusted first mate. The num- 
ber of complicated knots which this amiable 
Andrew tried faithfully to teach some of us to 
tie, might have led to a profession in themselves. 

Two quartermasters are charged with details 
on board more than the other sailors : they see 
that lights are in proper position, deck-chairs put 
away at night and arranged in the morning, the 
owner's "absent" flag and dinner-flags rightly 
hoisted in port, and altogether they are respon- 
sible for the minor etiquette of yachting. 

Many new forecastle faces appeared on the 
trip outward from Honolulu. Several who came 
around the Horn in the Coronet had left at San 
Francisco, while others dropped off at Honolulu, 
— an uneasy class. The various names, how- 



130 CORONA AND CORONET 

ever, seemed to remain always on board, and the 
Jims and Toms and Charlies were simply at- 
tached to different personalities. 

One sturdy little sailor was hardly taller than 
the great wheel, seeming to command it with 
ease in spite of the momentary impression that 
it would take him in hand. Another was a typi- 
cal stage-seaman, — young and handsome, with 
dark eyes and fine features, tall and well-formed 
as an athlete, with a throat like a strong white 
column ; his bright and cheerful expression sug- 
gested just having finished, or readiness to begin 
some rollicking tenor solo before a waiting audi- 
ence, about "joys of a sailor's life, yo-ho." But 
he never did. Mother Goose's Simple Simon 
daily helped to set sails, or scrub decks, or took 
his turn at the wheel. When hauling on a hal- 
yard he put in his whole soul, with facial results 
appropriate to the instant of committing a com- 
plicated murder. The same sailor who spun 
great yarns remained on board, and his stories 
grew as the voyage progressed. One day the 
Doctor came aft, from an excursion to the bow, 
and related a surgical tale deserving record. 
Big Jim was apt to regard the profession of his 
auditors. 

" I was once thirteen months in a Bombay 
hospital," he announced, "and at the end of that 
time the doctors had to take six inches out of 



FOUR WEEKS AT SEA 131 

my backbone. So I never grew any more. 
Stunted for life." 

This story only failed of its best impressive- 
ness because the victim was the tallest sailor on 
board. Having warned some one reading on the 
forward deck against such dangerous employ- 
ment, Big Jim said, " Why, I used to read all the 
time myself, and it made my eyes so bad I had 
to go to a hospital and have 'em taken out and 
scrubbed. The doctors found they could n't do 
it well enough there, so they sent 'em away to be 
cleaned, and I did n't get 'em back for three 
months." 

Days grew constantly hotter, a bird now and 
then forming the chief incident in a wide sky, 
although whales occasionally spouted or sharks 
darted through the water, their sharp fins easily 
recognizable ; once a series of fine water-spouts 
swept our early morning horizon. No sails ap- 
peared. If there were "ships that pass in the 
night," they remained invisible. 

But winds were at last with us, steady and 
strong, and good runs were made, — the whole 
voyage beautiful enough to last forever without 
protest. Scrapbooks were brought up to date, 
even to the aloha from Honolulu ; journals and 
letters flourished, chess-players became finished 
experts, decorations (in the shape of various pen- 
nants) were painted in the saloon, serious work of 



132 CORONA AND CORONET 

the expedition progressed, and days flew by on 
noiseless wings. The Mechanician, surrounded 
by wires, batteries, tools of all sorts, and small 
boxes of deft devices, sat on deck with head bent 
forward, ardent spectacles gleaming, as he toiled 
early and late at the inventions of the Astrono- 
mer, who was occupied near by in making the 
calculations necessary for experiments with dif- 
ferent exposures in all the twenty or more pho- 
tographic instruments, — each being arranged to 
take that automatic series of pictures of its own 
already described. 

Occasionally the Doctor brought forth cases of 
shining and suggestively ingenious tools of an- 
other trade, newly purchased for this expedi- 
tion, and all in best of condition for any dire 
calamity. Happily lack of specific use necessi- 
tated much attention and polishing to avoid sea- 
rust. When free from one sort of paraphernalia, 
both deck and big table below were generally 
strewn with the implements of some other pro- 
fession, in orderly confusion. Sometimes they 
were summarily swept away by Alfred "the 
Great " as meal-time approached, proper serving 
at the expected moment being a far more serious 
consideration than any mere eclipse, or celestial 
streamer. 

As for a little Richard barometer in the com- 
panion-way, it was an intimate friend of all, a 



FOUR WEEKS AT SEA 133 

glance at its telltale cylinder being an invariable 
but half-unconscious incident of every trip below, 
if a dozen times in a morning. 

The Captain barely escaped the loss overboard 
of his birthday at the one hundred and eightieth 
meridian, but its rescue was celebrated by a 
huge cake with candles, and many gifts unsealed 
from home. Delightful contralto, bass, or tenor 
solos diversified those evenings when tempera- 
ture would admit staying below with the piano ; 
or quartettes on deck floated over lonely Pacific 
wastes which may never again stir those soli- 
tudes. Chief, too, developed still another talent, 
giving us burlesque operas, accompanied by the 
guitar or autoharp in thrilling style, some of his 
final trills and cadenzas falling little short of the 
sublime, as he dramatically bewailed a broken 
heart in brilliant falsetto. 

And still Polaris sank lower, the Cross riding 
nightly higher in our southern heavens. 

Hoisting the main topmast-staysail was always 
a pretty sight. When lowered and stowed away 
it is delicately tied together in a long roll, and 
hauled into position still tied ; but when in place, 
the wind and a slight jerk breaking the little 
cords in speedy succession, it falls apart white 
and graceful, and is quickly made fast. 

At early morning, oftentimes, a curious noise 
like the rush of an amateur cyclone sounded over 



134 



CORONA AND CORONET 



our heads, but it was only a sailor scrubbing his 
white duck clothes on deck in sea-water with a 
big brush and salt-water soap. In the main they 
were fresh-faced, wholesome men, these sailors of 
the Pacific, quiet and industrious, with great 
pride in the beautiful Coronet. 

The shanties still continued, our mate, as on 
the previous voyage, singing the solos, and a 
hearty chorus aiding greatly in hoisting the 
mainsail. 

" Oh, Bony was a warrior " seemed a favorite : 

1 Oh, Bony was a warrior, wa, a, wa-a, Oh, Bony was a war- 

rior, wa-a — John French war (Jean Frangois.). 

2 He was a holy terrier. 

3 Oh, Bony went to sea one day, 

4 He went across to Eng-land, 

5 The England did a' stop him. 

6 Oh, Bony went to Moscow, 

7 He gained a bunch of roses there. 

8 Oh, Bony went to France again. 

9 The England went a' after him, 
10 He brought him Saint Helena, 

where his adventures seemed to lapse. "Whiskey 
boys, whiskey," was no less popular. 

" A long time ago " was fitted with words de- 
scribing the escapades of a certain sailor at Hon- 
olulu who had boasted of his income from his 
real estate in that city : — 

"It was the merry month of May; Wa, wa, wa, wa. 
The Coronet at Honolulu lay, A long time ago. 



FOUR WEEKS AT SEA 135 

** Jimmy went on shore that day, etc. 
To draw his rent and three months' pay : 
Jimmy did not come back that day " — 

and so on through a long tale varied as feeling 
toward Jimmy rose or fell. 

After the course was changed to northwest, 
winds became curiously fitful, almost as if the 
edge of a typhoon had passed by, so abnormal 
were the conditions. Showers fell, general roll- 
ing prevailed, winds died out, or else sharp 
breezes sprung up from unexpected quarters. 
For several days anything was anticipated, but 
one afternoon a regular wind began once more, 
after a heavy rain ; coolness and comfort re- 
turned, and ten knots were easily made. A high 
gray sea was running, though the water still 
showed a temperature of 80° F. Then a rollick- 
ing blue morning with sparkling white-caps, and 
everything was natural again. 

Sextants and other nautical instruments 
abounded to an unusual degree, and observations 
were not confined either to Captain or to noon- 
day sights — but Polaris, Spica and Antares were 
watched at night, by astronomer as well as 
yachtsman. Enough solid navigation to direct a 
fleet was carried, boxed in its own little mahogany 
nests. 

Visitors on board were rarer than on the way 
to Honolulu ; one exquisite little creature like a 



136 CORONA AND CORONET 

poeticized corona was caught, — a delicate blue 
centre with a double row of lighter blue encir- 
cling rays. Twilights once more grew long. 

A day or two before the coast of Japan should 
have been sighted, flocks of birds appeared, the 
breeze suddenly increased to sixty miles an hour, 
while huge gray rollers again broke all over the 
tossing sea in sharp white foam. Yet the wind 
was in an opposite quarter from its normal direc- 
tion, if indeed this disturbance were the edge of 
a typhoon sweeping up the coast. Quick orders 
for lowering sail rang out ; in the confusion of 
tramping feet above, and the booming wind, all 
sorts of expressions came down the companion- 
way, cut into bits in their descent, and fraught 
with mysterious import. " Clew up your top- 
sails," " Let go your throat," mingled with direc- 
tions about the lee lift and the main sheets. I 
listened in vain, however, for my favorite order 
on board, "Jig up your peak." To-day's crisis 
demanded quite the opposite of "jigging up" 
anything. But in an incredibly short time 
phrases were translated into an accomplished 
shortening of all sail. Nothing remained but 
the main trysail and a jib ; it rained with tropical 
lavishness, and once more we were "hove to" 
near the coast in a wild swirl of waters. 

And still the Pacific had retrieved its charac- 
ter. Since 1887 I had felt it entirely misnamed; 



FOUR WEEKS AT SEA 137 

that its fog, high seas, and general roughness of 
demeanor demanded an apology, at least an ex- 
planation, from those dead and gone worthies 
who saw fit to call it Pacific. But probably they 
had not sailed a great-circle course from Vancou- 
ver, as our previous expedition did. Now, after 
traversing its enchanting southern water spaces, 
with day after day of shining sea, and trade- 
winds, with no necessity for racks on the table or 
"fences" at night — these things quite obliter- 
ated all memory of that other unfriendly northern 
Pacific which in 1887 had treated the old Abys- 
sinia so unceremoniously. Except for a day or 
two, this voyage had been a tropical harmony in 
blue and gold. 

And after this one tempestuous night, the 
morning dawned fair and lovely, but greeted no 
longer by a sapphire sea to reflect the brilliant 
sky. The Coronet was unmistakably in the Ku- 
rosiwa, the " black current " of Japan ; the water 
was dark green, and full of drifting sea-weed. 

Before sunset of that bright Sunday, the 
twenty-first of June, two or three islands ap- 
peared, — Mikura, Miaki, and Vries. Then the 
incomparable cone of Fuji lifted itself against 
the sky — that well remembered landmark which 
was our last sight of the beautiful land nine years 
before, and without which Japan could not be 
Japan. Faint and far away, but unmistakable^ 



CORONA AND CORONET 



and as fair as when, the morning after its mirac- 
ulous creation, this " new born child of the gods " 
caused the sailors at sea to rub their eyes and 
wonder if it were the IwakurUy eternal throne of 
heaven, come down to rest on earth out of the 
many piled white clouds above. The majestic 
cone vouchsafed royal welcome, though less clear 
than at his gracious dismissal. 

And then a fishing-boat or two appeared, — 
first sign of human life other than our own in 
all the four weeks' wide stretch of lonely sea. 
As darkness came on, great Fuji melted from 
sight, and here and there torches twinkled un- 
steadily from fishermen setting trawls. The 
Captain remained on deck all night, and his 
guests went below with mingled sensations of 
memory and anticipation. 



CHAPTER XV 

JAPAN REVISITED 

Thank God for tea ! What would the world do without tea ! How did it 
exist ? I am glad I was not born before tea. 

Sydney Smith, Memoir, i. 383. 

Danger of disenchantment lurks about a re- 
turn to distant lands whose memory has been for 
years enshrouded in rosy atmosphere. The halo 
idealizing our recollections down the vista of 
years may dissipate into nothingness once the 
actual comes again in sight. 

Will the air be as sweet as in those dreamy 
retrospects } Will the beauty be as all-pervasive, 
the charm as haunting } All the mistily bright 
June morning when the Coronet was beating up 
Yeddo Bay between green shores on either side, 
this unspoken wonder seemed to hover half- 
unconsciously in the sunny air. 

For nine years the name of Japan had recalled 
pictures of dainty little women thronging its 
streets in bright dresses and gay parasols, and of 
shops full of fine old swords and other relics 
of samurai days, sold for a trifle, as being 
of no farther practical value in the modern life 
then beginning to overwhelm the beautiful land. 



I40^ CORONA AND CORONET 

Memories, too, of jinrikisha rides through quaint 
streets, when the coolies pulHng the fascinating 
little carriages had known scarcely a word of 
English, and were more than satisfied with ten 
sen an hour for their exertions, and of night 
rides when the shops and open booths were 
lighted by flaring torches, and foot travelers and 
jinrikisha bore their own painted lanterns swing- 
ing in the soft darkness ; of happy babies 
strapped on the backs of sisters or mothers, to 
spend long days in utter content which excluded 
even the knowledge of how to cry — all these 
thoughts of years, and countless others, were 
concentrated in one bewildering mental retro- 
spect, as we sailed once more up the lovely bay, 
in the era of Meiji 29. 

Familiar places came into view one after an- 
other, the sharp promontory guarding Mississippi 
Bay, then the houses on the Bluff nearly hidden 
in verdure ; farther on the mercantile parts of 
Yokohama, and the Bund with straggling pines 
on the water-side, low houses facing the bay be- 
hind verandas and garden-walls on the other; 
great Fuji dimly brooding over all, unchanged 
against the sky, — and we were once more cast- 
ing anchor among the men-of-war of all nations, 
inside the superb new breakwater. 

A few years ago no barrier had raised itself 
against the tempestuous seas which almost at a 



JAPAN REVISITED 141 

moment's notice often turned the harbor into a 
boiUng, seething mass of tossing waves ; when it 
was impossible to induce sampan or even steam- 
launch to take one out from shore, even if an 
already promised tiffin or dinner on one of the 
men-of-war were involved. Now the harbor is a 
safe and quiet anchorage. 

Before the Coronet actually came to rest a 
dozen sampans had surrounded her, their wooden 
anchors lying in the bow as of old, and propelled 
in the familiar way by one huge oar at the stern, 
but no longer wielded by what had once appeared 
animated bronze statues. Instead, all were de- 
corously clothed in dark blue cotton garments, or 
attempts at European array, although the big, 
picturesque hats still prevailed. 

But English was actually spoken by the men 
who held up cheap porcelain and coarse cloi- 
sonne for sale from the native boats gathered 
about. Rather imperfect, but generally definite 
"American," it was still successful as to import. 
The only chance for that class of wares with for- 
eigners is immediately upon arrival, when every- 
thing seems beautiful. The discriminating fac- 
ulty of the traveler soon comes to the front, and 
he speedily becomes critical in all matters of 
Japanese art. 

Rather surprised, even their savoirfaire some- 
what upset by the few sentences in their own 



142 CORONA AND CORONET 

tongue tossed over to them, relative to price and 
quality of their wares, these light-hearted ven- 
dors of unattractive articles paddled away ; and 
hotel-runners, provision dealers, laundry-men, and 
every variety of tradesman clamored in their 
stead. But quarter-masters and stewards kept 
the yacht decks free from the amphibious host. 

Reporters were by no means left behind on 
the American shore. Delightful little gentle- 
men, some in kimono and obiy English boots and 
Derby hat ; some in paper or celluloid collars, 
crowning elegance of a limp suit of pongee silk, 
or seersucker ; others in the beautiful native dress 
unadulterated, — all were still the same deeply 
bowing, smiling, spectacled, courteous class we 
remembered. One of these gentlemen prepared 
for his shimbun (newspaper) a serial upon the 
expedition and its adventures which ran through 
four numbers. And another came on board 
with the startling announcement, very calmly 
made, that he had "come to take the life of 
chief of expedition — for Japanese news-paper." 

Remarkable disturbances of nature seemed to 
accompany the Amherst Eclipse Expedition 
upon its travels, and the first news heard by the 
voyagers, quite starved for information as to 
what had been happening to any of the earth's 
inhabitants during the last month, was intelli- 
gence of a terrible misfortune in northern dis- 



JAPAN REVISITED 143 

tricts of the main island. It was learned that an 
enormous tidal wave had within a few days de- 
vastated more than thirty towns, washing away 
nearly six thousand houses, and destroying be- 
tween thirty and forty thousand persons. Since 
the great earthquake in which Yeddo (now 
Tokyo) was nearly swallowed up, forty years ago, 
Japan has had no such calamity, not even the 
Bandaisan eruption of 1888, or the Nagoya 
earthquake of 1892. 

Detailed accounts of this appalling disaster 
were still hard to obtain, for the few survivors in 
the devasted districts were too dazed to give 
clear descriptions of the horror which befell 
them. But it was known that a seismic wave, 
some persons declared one hundred feet in 
height, the majority uniting upon an altitude of 
about eighty feet, swept across the land with 
irresistible force. Along a coast line of one 
hundred and seventy-five miles in one province 
alone, the seaboard of three districts was over- 
whelmed, — Miyagi, Iwate, and Aomori, extend- 
ing from Hachinoye on the north to Kinkasan, 
an island at the mouth of the bay of Sendai, on 
the south. Several shocks of earthquake were 
felt during the few hours preceding, and shortly 
before eight o'clock in the evening of the 15th of 
June a terrifying noise was heard, like the boom 
of gigantic artillery, — the simultaneous firing of 



144 CORONA AND CORONET 

hundreds of cannon ; a black wall of water was 
seen advancing from the ocean with fearful speed, 
and in less than two minutes whole towns were 
swept away and thousands of human beings per- 
ished in the onward rush of this watery monster, 
and there were not survivors enough within 
reach to bury the dead who had not been sucked 
out to sea by the retreating tide. 

Their Imperial Majesties, the Emperor and 
Empress, came at once and nobly to the rescue, 
the Mitsui family contributed scarcely less, and 
the Tokyo journals opened subscriptions for relief 
of starving survivors, the "Jiji" collecting in a 
few days over ten thousand yen, and the " Nichi- 
Nichi" more than eight thousand, while the 
Iwate branch of the Japan Red Cross Society 
established temporary hospitals among the suf- 
fering people. The number of victims was at 
first greatly underrated. 

All the habits, even the methods of thought, 
return in plunging once more into a land as dis- 
tinctly foreign as Japan, and even in Yokohama, 
where strangers from other countries most 
abound, the native atmosphere is hardly adulter- 
ated enough to change the general effect. The 
sunlight, the tints and odors of years before, 
were unaltered. Even jinrikisha riding had lost 
none of its charm, even if the runners, now 
speaking considerable English, did show a grow- 



JAPAN REVISITED 145 

ing affinity for their far-away fraternity, the cab- 
men of American cities, in demanding whatever 
they could get for fares. 

The effort to adapt manners and customs to 
an imported standard, redoubled since the bril- 
liant termination of their war with China, was 
everywhere apparent. 

Many signs are displayed in our own familiar 
letters, instead of the picturesque floating strips 
of dark blue cotton with their decorative ideo- 
graphs in white. Still, these are not super- 
seded, even in Yokohama, and the streets are 
like one long holiday parade, — they actually 
throb with mysterious vitality, the ideographs 
quiver with meaning ; a vivid picture comes be- 
fore the mind with each character floating in the 
wind. To a Japanese " it lives, it speaks, it gesti- 
culates." 

Art is in the air, until suddenly one comes 
across an English sign, perhaps after this style : 
"Dealer in of fan circular fan umbrella." 

A fierce and sturdy-looking individual in 
abundant whiskers and Americanized dress 
stands painted guard over one shop, with a high 
boot on one leg, a shoe on the other foot. This 
not being quite definite enough, the legend runs 
"Shoe to make to form." 

"Watch and gold silverware belonging" was 
quite clear, also "Drinks and courserues." 



146 CORONA AND CORONET 

A well-known dealer in curios advertises " Our 
shop is best and obliging worker that have every- 
body known, . . . We can works how much diffi- 
cult Job with lowest price insure, please try, 
once try don't forget name Whisky." Posses- 
sives and plurals, in truth small matters, are con- 
sidered rather too trivial for use. Possessives, 
indeed, become expensive if one is telegraphing 
in English, each adding several sen to the sum 
total of charges. 

" Wholesale and retail seller shop," and 
" Landing, shipping customs goods forwarded to 
parts " were easy to comprehend, as well as 
"Transportation of several goods and baggages 
of steamboat and railroad," and " Wine beer 
and other." But "Do you love your life or 
rather" was more of a conundrum. An odd 
combination profession seemed to be implied in 
"Portrait painter and dealer in Manila cigars," 
while another shopkeeper announced above his 
entrance "glass and lumps" as his stock in 
trade. A sign of rather startling import as- 
serted that within might be found " Lamb, 
corpses and provisions in seasonable rates." But 
we purchased our chops elsewhere. A collection 
of foreign signs during this transition period of 
Japanese advancement would show new possibili- 
ties in the English language. 

Within the shops more articles were obviously 



JAPAN REVISITED \^^ 

made for travelers from other lands, — sure be- 
ginning of art degeneration in any country. 

Time had stolen little in nine years from the 
two famous sisters Tanabe-san and Kin-san. 
Once beautiful as well as fascinating, they still 
remain exceedingly attractive. Their uncle, in 
power in the province or ken in 1859, signed the 
articles of treaty with Commodore Perry, and 
the two charming women have always lived in an 
atmosphere of the world at large, while yet pre- 
serving the dainty sweetness of their race. Ac- 
quaintance with them is a definite, integral part 
of Japanese experience ; both sisters speak no 
less easily in French, German, and even Russian, 
than in the English which they use so prettily, 
and the little silk-shop where embroideries may 
be bought accompanied by gentle compliments in 
English, manners to credit the graceful regime 
of old, and pale yellow tea of delectable flavor, 
was still pleasant meeting-ground for many na- 
tionalities. 

In the celebrated tea house at the top of the 
Hundred Steps, Kin-san preserves many me- 
mentos of her ancestors and Commodore Perry, 
as well as an interesting guest book, in which 
may be found the cards of hundreds of travelers 
of distinction visiting Japan during twenty years. 
Here Kin-san dispenses cosmopolitan hospital- 
ity, filtered through customary Japanese forms, 



CORONA AND CORONET 



and Yokohama will lose one of its great delights 
when she ceases to serve tea and sweetmeats 
from her lofty veranda at Fujita, almost over- 
hanging the gray tiled roofs of the city far be- 
low; and when her soft voice shall no longer 
accompany her elaborate playing on koto and 
samisen. 

One of the most picturesque spots in Yoko- 
hama, Fujita is reached either by literally toiling 
up a hundred steps from the street below, where 
the kurumaya^ trusting foreign ignorance of 
locality, will basely leave a confiding fare if he 
can be so imposed upon ; or by a winding road 
ascending in easy stages to the rear of the tea- 
house. At night the view is a sea of twinkling 
lights below. Foreigners have always played 
a large part in the experience of both these 
dainty women, whom necessity compelled to 
transact business for themselves ; and without 
ever leaving Japan they have seen the world in 
very attractive guise. 

Certain distinctive habits have by no means 
been outgrown in all the incoming rush of 
modern ways. In making kimono^ for instance, 
different sorts of stitches having reference to the 
prospective wearer were still used, a system per- 
haps a little less elaborate than the Morse tele- 
graphic code. A long and two short stitches, 
one short and two long — these combined in a 



JAPAN REVISITED 149 

variety of ways indicate that the garment is for 
a man, or a married woman, a young girl, or a 
child, or perhaps for a girl about to be married. 

And still the pleasant life of foreign residents 
went on much as it had years before, open 
port life showing fewer changes than more 
purely native places. Our old friend, consul- 
general in 1887, during the first Cleveland ad- 
ministration, was no longer there, but instead in 
Korea. Others, however, were still at hand to 
give friendly and well-remembered greeting ; and 
among the officers of the men-of-war there were, 
as always, many acquaintances. 

The Coronet's next neighbor in harbor was 
the Olympia, flag-ship of our Asiatic squadron, 
now more famous from the great Manila victory. 
The Detroit lay peacefully near by, and the 
French cruiser L' Alger, while English men-of- 
war and even a Mexican brightened the bay, 
with a number of Japanese merchant and naval 
vessels. Several small yachts skimmed lightly 
about, or lay at anchor near the Bund, and daily 
in landing we passed a schooner yacht but just 
returned from the South Sea Islands. A pretty 
craft, apparently manned by one huge Fiji Is- 
lander, she took little part in the gay harbor life 
flashing around her on all sides. 

At sea one is never allowed to forget the pas- 
sage of time, for two, four, eight bells are always 



150 CORONA AND CORONET 

sounding, the hours and half hours chasing each 
other in a mad rush for eternity ; here in harbor 
there was little danger of wondering what real 
time actually might be, although each nation, 
and almost each vessel seemed to have its own 
notion of when the bells should be struck. Only 
a few seconds apart, they formed a pleasant chim- 
ing all over the bay, clear and loud, or soft and 
distant, echoing from one to the other in melodi- 
ous iteration. 

At colors every morning a fine concert from 
the Olympia always greeted us. When all the 
ensigns and pennants slowly ascended into place 
at eight o'clock, and as our company, if on deck 
so soon, stood with bared heads while the Coro- 
net's stars and stripes went up, the flagship band 
played America ; then the Japanese national 
air, — a curiously characteristic melody, — fol- 
lowed sometimes by the national anthems of the 
other countries represented by the men-of-war 
lying in harbor, and ending always with Nancy 
Lee, in pleasant compliment to their little neigh- 
bor the Coronet, whose especial song it is. There 
were bands, too, on some of the other men-of-war, 
and bugles playing familiar calls. Talking from 
one to the other by day with different signal flags 
gayly floating in summer breezes, and evening 
conversations by flashing colored electric lights, 
made harbor life vivid and picturesque. 



JAPAN RE VISITED 1 51 

Naval hospitalities flowed in upon us, — a tiffin 
by the Admiral, dinners by the Ward Room offi- 
cers, dances, teas ; while the pretty Coronet 
held her own bravely in the exchange of social 
courtesies ; and on shore were no fewer festive 
occasions. 

One memorable evening ceremonial tea, cha- 
no-yoit, was served for our benefit. 

In all the modern rush of nineteenth-century 
life, beautiful old customs will be in danger of 
dying out, or at least of being pushed from 
sight. On the previous visit so many more of 
the purely historic, hereditary and traditional 
forms were practiced than seemed available this 
time, that it was a delight to see once more the 
elaborate tea-ceremony in all its solemn impres- 
siveness. 

Young girls are trained a long time for presid- 
ing at this function, and every motion is ad- 
justed in accordance with deeply philosophical 
and ancient usage. The ceremony itself and 
its underlying principles have been so often and 
minutely described that I shall but refer super- 
ficially to the features which were most apparent 
to the Coronet company, sitting in a circle on the 
floor in waiting silence. The tea itself is a 
choice and very fine green powder, every imple- 
ment old and valuable, heirlooms if possible, and 
kept especially for these occasions. 



152 CORONA AND CORONET 

When a cup of this exceedingly delicious bev- 
erage is set before the guests, in order of their 
rank, each lifts it slowly to his forehead, after 
bowing low, turns it ninety degrees counter-clock- 
wise, and drinks it with deliberation, so regulating 
his sips that three and one-half will just exhaust 
the contents of the cup, the last being taken 
with a slight indrawn hiss to express intensity of 
appreciation and pleasure. Between sips the cup 
is gracefully shaken, also in a particular way, to 
stir the powder at the bottom. The finger 
should wipe the edge of the cup where one's lips 
have touched it, the finger itself wiped upon a 
little piece of soft, once-folded paper already laid 
upon the mat. Another piece, folded in a point, 
holds a sweetmeat afterward to be taken home. 
Later, the tea-caddy with its fragrant green 
powder is passed from one to another, for ad- 
miring scrutiny, also expressed in a special man- 
ner; as well as the long-handled ivory spoon 
with which the powder is transferred to the tea- 
pot. It is all very slow and stately and cultured. 

" Well," remarked one of the guests, straight- 
ening his American back as he emerged from the 
dainty dwelling, and started for the Bund, " It 
does n't take long to stay a good while some- 
times." 

But truly lovely was the return to all the 
grace and culture, the exquisite breeding, the 



JAPAN REVISITED 153 

constant thought for the happiness of others — 
the artistic life of Japan. Even sitting on the 
floor has its glamour, if one takes the right men- 
tal as well as physical attitude, and the genial 
sweetness of the entire country is so pervasive 
that the best of one's nature expands unfailingly 
in its sunny atmosphere. 

Japan is changing, and noticeably ; but Chi- 
nese compradores continue to walk unsmilingly 
through the streets in quiet majesty, and many 
years must pass before expressions of the na- 
tional spirit will fall naturally into the common- 
place ruts of other civilizations. The past had 
perhaps been canonized, and the present was 
different, but there was no disenchantment. The 
old-time charm exerted its spell as before, al- 
though a few babies were heard crying with truly 
western vehemence, evidently the result of for- 
eign influence, and at a delightful tea-house 
entertainment one evening no painted lanterns 
swung in the breeze, but electric lights flashed 
forth from a bronze chandelier. 

Tidal waves destroying lives and temples and 
monuments in Japan are not a modern innova- 
tion. From earliest times the country has been 
occasionally overwhelmed by various forms of 
destruction. Floods swell the rivers, wash out 
railroads and drown rice - fields ; earthquakes 
wreck whole towns, volcanoes bury provinces. 



154 



CORONA AND CORONET 



Yet always energetic, hopeful, aspiring, the Japa- 
nese take fresh courage from misfortune and 
rise to renewed power and mastery in the life of 
the far East. 

The brilliantly successful issue of the war 
with China has given the Japanese new faith in 
themselves, and the spirit of modern progress is 
abroad in the land. As a nation they will ulti- 
mately incorporate whatever is best in our civili- 
zation with their traditions, hoary with centuries, 
beside which the short history of America 
seems but an episode. If only they are far-see- 
ing enough to retain what is best and most 
characteristic in their own civilization as well, 
the combination will make a country of modern 
enterprise, coupled with the artistic bequest of 
ages, which the world has never seen. 



JAPANESE NATIONAL AIR 

Largo. 

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CHAPTER XVI 

DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 

In this world, where civilization grows at the expense of the picturesque, 
it is something to see a culture that knows how least to mar. 

Percival Lowell. 

Tell us of thy food, — those half-marine refections, 
Crinoids on the shell, and Brachiopods au natural ! 

Bret Harte. 

Yokohama's native quarter was still like some 
animated fan or screen. Wooden clogs {geta) 
clicked well - remembered music, and the little 
teapot ladies of the thoroughfares made no visi- 
ble attempts to sport in European dress. That 
fad seemed to have died a natural death, and 
attractiveness in street scenes is apparently as- 
sured. The pretty kimono were out in full force, 
with all their bright colorings, the flowing sleeves 
doing service as capacious pockets for paper hand- 
kerchiefs. Young girls in scarlet underskirts still 
clattered along with tiny, black -eyed brothers 
swinging on their backs ; gay sashes (obi) and 
elaborately dressed hair gleamed in the sun, and 
bridges with their crowded passers were more 
picturesque than a picture. And however poor 
or low in caste a Japanese woman may be, she 



156 CORONA AND CORONET 

seems never too ignorant to keep her hair smooth 
and shining as a matter of course. One meets no 
fuzzy, rough-haired girls, in any quarter. Unhap- 
pily the pretty little women had abjured the gay, 
many-ribbed parasols, appearing in their jinrikisha 
sedately shaded by black silk umbrellas of very 
ordinary shape. But children still flourished the 
brilliant paper ones. 

The Astronomer was at once busy with 
Government officials, with the Imperial Weather 
Bureau, and with our own representatives at the 
Legation, and very soon the station for observing 
the eclipse had been selected. 

A new system of meteorological observations 
made before an eclipse and with special refer- 
ence to it was inaugurated by Professor Todd in 
1890, for that of 1893. Taking the exact track 
as soon as published in the Nautical Almanac, 
and having careful observations made at the best 
and most accessible points, gave excellent re- 
sults on that occasion. As the Ephemeris is 
issued about four years in advance, this insures 
three complete series before an eclipse. Noting 
the general meteorological conditions of the 
heavens is not sufficient, for the sun is in a par- 
ticular part of the sky at a given hour, so that 
the observations must be of special character, 
and with distinct reference to the position of the 
sun, season of the year, and hour of the day 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 157 

when the eclipse takes place. The tabulation of 
this information assists greatly in selecting the 
best stations for eclipse-observation, and those 
who followed the indications as to clearness of 
sky in 1893 achieved the best results. 

In that year Professor Todd wrote to the Di- 
rector of the Imperial Japanese Weather Ser- 
vice, requesting observations at different points 
in the Hokkaido, and his suggestions were car- 
ried out in every particular. Professor Naka- 
mura, of the Central Meteorological Observatory 
at Tokyo, had printed and distributed to the dif- 
ferent legations a pamphlet for the information 
of eclipse students, containing not only all the 
observations referred to, but a sufficiently minute 
discussion of them to enable all the astronomers 
to weigh most intelligently the probable chances 
of clear skies at every available point in the path 
of totality. The establishment of any station 
is thus made with full knowledge of whether it 
is best or worst in probable clearness ; and if 
obliged to plant himself in some less hopeful 
location, the intending observer takes his own 
risk, with eyes wide open to the law of probabili- 
ties. 

The three provinces of Yezo in which the 
shadow fell were Kushiro, Kitami, and Nemuro, 
each containing several towns, most of them 
small and but little known to foreigners. Dur- 



1S8 CORONA AND CORONET 

ing 1893, 1894, and 1895, tri-daily observations 
were made from July 25 to August 25 at two 
o'clock, half after two, and three o'clock, at a 
number of these villages in the eclipse track, the 
results being carefully collated in comparative 
tables. From the percentage of cloud at the ob- 
servation hour itself, Akkeshi, on the southeast 
coast, came first in probabilities of clearness, and 
Esashi, on the northeast coast, second ; but from 
the point of its constancy thirty minutes before 
and after the eclipse, Esashi presided over all 
the others, as shown by the full tables given for 
thirty-two days at seven towns. 

The selection of a station always involves 
much care and forethought, and responsibility 
enough to whiten the hair of any one except 
a philosophic astronomer, accustomed to take 
chances with nature. The probabilities at Esa- 
shi were considerably more than half in favor of 
clearness, and after studying the reports and 
tables carefully and consulting with the meteor- 
ologists, the Professor finally selected that point 
as his observing station, although it is farther 
and more difficult of access than Akkeshi, of 
which he had thought before our arrival in Japan 
as a probable location. 

And so Esashi, eleven hundred miles north of 
Yokohama, became the scientific Mecca toward 
which these pilgrims would wend their way, — a 




MAP OF 
SHOWING THE TRACK OF 

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE 

^^■ixgvist 9tli. 1896 



Loiijjitude East from Greenwich 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 159 

region so remote that native steamers had but 
recently begun to go there at all, and that in- 
frequently ; a village on the shores of the Sea 
of Okhotsk, among the hairy Ainu, the aborigines 
of Japan, cut off by many hundred miles of im- 
passable forest and mountain from even Sapporo 
and Hakodate. At least the prospect for unusual 
experiences looked hopeful. 

The distance of Esashi in Kitami from Yoko- 
hama, and the sort of coasting voyage necessary 
to reach it, put out of question all possibility of 
sailing there in the Coronet ; so it was planned 
that she should convey the unscientific contin- 
gent southward to Kobe instead, making after- 
ward a trip through the Inland Sea. 

But the imperial government was most courte- 
ous to the expedition, affording every facility pos- 
sible, which included, with truly royal generosity, 
requests to both railroad and steamer corpora- 
tions for free transportation for the whole party 
and the instruments to any point they might 
select, and many other favors which greatly en- 
hanced our comfort and convenience. 

Official matters move slowly in Japan, and our 
imposing array of introductions and documents 
from Washington needed time for fullest avail- 
ability. The Astronomer wished, if possible, to 
leave Yokohama not later than the first of July. 

The interest of scientific men in this eclipse 



i6o CORONA AND CORONET 

was shown by the large number assembled for its 
observation — French, English, American, Jap- 
anese. France was represented by M. Henri 
Deslandres, then of the Paris Observatory, accom- 
panied by M. Millochau and the brothers F. and 
J. Mittau. He also chose Esashi, whither the 
French cruiser L' Alger was soon to convey him 
from Yokohama with his fine equipment of spec- 
troscopes. Genuinely modest as he is, Professor 
Deslandres no doubt hoped to bring back from 
Kitami wilds some solar discovery not less signi- 
ficant than his trophy from the African eclipse 
of 1893, — the rotation of the corona with the 
Sun. 

Professor Schaeberle, head of the Lick Obser- 
vatory expedition, stationed himself at Akkeshi 
with his party, consisting of Mr. Burckhalter of 
the Chabot Observatory at Oakland, and others. 
Professor Terao, Director of the Tokyo Observa- 
tory, chose Esashi ; and the Astronomer Royal 
of England, Mr. Christie, with Professor Turner 
of Oxford, and Captain Hills, of the Royal Engi- 
neers, soon arrived by a Canadian Pacific steamer, 
and proceeded forthwith to Akkeshi, in Her Maj- 
esty's ship Volage. But a few days remained 
before our own expedition would depart north- 
ward — days filled with hurry of preparation, yet 
leaving time for enjoyment of many native and 
foreign courtesies. 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION i6i 

A certain half-tropical, gently pungent odor, 
not precisely that of flowers, or luxuriant vegeta- 
tion, incense or moist atmosphere, old embroid- 
eries, or the culture of ages, but perhaps all of 
these together, and more powerful to awaken 
association than even sight or sound, haunts 
Japan like a spiritual aroma. With its first 
dimly suggestive breath the nine years' chasm 
was so bridged that life might almost have gone 
on ever since without a break, in this dear, 
dreamy lotus-land. 

An old friend, and graduate of the college 
represented by the expedition, whose father, at 
one time highest in command in the Imperial 
Navy was just then Governor of Formosa, invited 
us for an evening of Old Japan at the Maple 
Club in Tokyo. A resort of the nobles, fine en- 
tertainments are constantly given there, under 
exquisitely characteristic conditions. 

Before the dinner, which began about six 
o'clock, we drove with our friend to the Imperial 
Gardens by the sea, — a charming spot, not acces- 
sible to the public, and laid out with that taste 
and skill peculiar to the Japanese landscape gar- 
dener. Advantage has been taken of its situa- 
tion to introduce many beautiful water-ways di- 
rectly from the bay. When these winding inlets 
are to be crossed, the bridges do not go uncom- 
promisingly over from one bank to the other, but 



1 62 CORONA AND CORONET 

abound in unexpected corners and turns and 
"jogs." And the railings are not of plain, square 
timber held together by heavy nails ; instead, a 
light and graceful bamboo rail — its fastenings 
of fine wrought iron, each a work of art in it- 
self. A daintily decorated tea-house awaited 
the guests, and servants in livery of the nobles 
explained, and guided them to the finest points. 

- Fish, apparently afflicted with hysterics, leaped 
constantly from the water, often two or three 
feet above its surface. Ingeniously dwarfed 
trees stood here and there ; superb forest trees 
as well, while delicate maples, with their seven- 
pointed leaves, cast lovely shade in the summer 
day. Finding an eight-lobed maple leaf is as de- 
sirable as a four-leafed clover in another land. 

From a hill was gained a view of the blue bay 
with its fleet of square sails gathered into stripes 
after the old, well-remembered fashion. 

There is no expectation that guests will not 
stroll anywhere over the fine turf, but wherever 
these wandering footsteps are liable to converge 

— as perhaps here and there at a few moss- 
grown stone steps — a gravel path begins sud- 
denly in the grass before the steps are reached. 
Sometimes but a short bit of path is required, 
and there is nowhere that appearance of unin- 
tentional footwearing often marring constantly 
trodden parts of lawn. 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 163 

At the Maple Club entrance a bevy of pretty 
maids welcomed the guests, taking their shoes 
before conducting them through a long series of 
polished corridors to an airy room open on two 
sides to an elaborate garden, a large lotus-pond 
just beyond, and great Fuji eighty miles away, 
against the brightness of a sunset pageant. 

Here the Countess, mother of our friend, a 
sweet-faced lady in gray silk kimono ^ met us with 
warm greeting, though herself speaking no Eng- 
lish. Two young girls, daintily dressed in na- 
tive costume, with superb obi, also bade us wel- 
come in friendly Japanese. Their melodious 
names were found, upon interpretation, to mean 
something about a flower and the shining of a 
red star. 

Our host, who had been married since his re- 
turn to Japan, then presented his small daughter, 
brought in her nurse's arms for a few moments, 
a gorgeous baby of six months arrayed in magni- 
ficent gold brocades reaching quite to the floor, 
the expression upon her little face peculiarly in- 
telligent and high-bred. One could hardly have 
imagined her as belonging to the same race with 
the chubby-cheeked, fringe-haired akambo every- 
where seen tossing about on many a back. 

Among the guests were a young viscount, also 
an old friend, who with his father and mother 
and beautiful sisters had on our former visit paid 



1 64 CORONA AND CORONET 

US many delightful attentions, not the least of 
which were gifts of memorable embroideries ; 
and a professor in the Imperial University, a 
graduate of Amherst, to whom we owed many a 
pleasant memory of 1887. As the three Japan- 
ese gentlemen spoke perfect English, social inter- 
course was but slightly restricted. 

Squares of royal purple silk were brought in 
as seats upon the floor, but one or two ottomans 
came also, lest foreign guests should weary of 
the enforced position, — a thoughtful and by no 
means superfluous courtesy to some of the com- 
pany, since sitting on the floor, although a de- 
sirable and graceful accomplishment, is suppos- 
ably one not easily acquired. Personally, I en- 
joy it for unlimited hours. 

Seated at length on the purple squares, with 
ottomans in reserve, stealthy shadows crept up 
to the bright room from the dusky garden, its 
paths and stone lanterns just visible in light 
from the ashes of sunset, while tiny cups of tea 
were removed, and the entertainment began. 

Daintily made boxes containing sweetmeats 
were placed before all the guests, among them 
the Japanese and American flags shining forth 
in amicable proximity through clear yellow jelly. 
Examined and admired, they were set aside to be 
taken home at close of the evening; the first 
course of the dinner following at once, each of 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 165 

US had his individual table, unsplit chopsticks, 
and pretty waitress. 

Japanese food is for the most part indescrib- 
able in English words ; many of the twenty-seven 
articles which appeared during the evening were 
delicious and familiar Japanese dainties, and 
using chopsticks is a quickly learned and easily 
remembered art, but for certain choice and highly 
prized viands a severely acquired taste is requisite. 
In addition to soup and cooked fish, hot sake, raw 
fish with pungent sauce, chopped chicken, dai- 
kofiy shell fish and chrysanthemum petals, lily- 
bulbs and rice rolled in rare seaweeds, there 
were also quail and French claret, lest, as our 
host observed, American appetites should suf- 
fer in the midst of Japanese plenty. Between 
courses the sliding paper screens shutting off the 
next apartment were withdrawn, and several 
choice plays were performed, the whole enter- 
tainment lasting from six o'clock until after 
eleven. These old classic plays are now kept up 
in Japan chiefly by actors who perform them for 
love, and their own satisfaction, as it is no longer 
the order of amusement which young Japan en- 
joys enough to assure financial success. 

When the screens were first pushed apart, an 
archer was disclosed, handsomely dressed in the 
costume of old feudal days, — a haughty and im- 
pressive nobleman, engaged in stately conversa- 



i66 CORONA AND CORONET 

tion with his attendant, also in fine ancient 
dress. Very soon a man of lower caste entered, 
leading a monkey, and bowing low to the knight. 
After a few moments of dialogue the attendant 
told the newcomer it would be necessary for 
him to yield whatever his lord might ask, to 
which the man readily assented ; having indeed 
no choice in those days when a nobleman's will 
was law. 

The knight, fancying the monkey's skin, de- 
manded it for a quiver to hold his arrows. But 
that request almost broke the man's heart, the 
monkey having been his nearest companion for 
years ; he protested that he could not live with- 
out his little friend. A well acted scene fol- 
lowed in which the monkey's owner ventured 
humbly to remonstrate, telling the knight how 
they two had fared together, how he loved the 
little animal, and how hard it would be to kill 
him, although knowing he was bound by his pro- 
mise to do so if the nobleman persisted. This 
was all so dramatically done that it hardly 
needed the clever running translation of our 
friends, — the story told itself in action ; and 
when the man, looking tenderly at the monkey, 
told him he must die, that even he could not 
save him, the little creature — a small boy in 
reality — turned his head toward his master, 
looking up with unaltered confidence and love, 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 167 

and certainty that it must be all right if his dear 
master said so; it was a piece of acting so 
pathetic that the audience was greatly moved, 
and waited breathlessly for the end Finally the 
knight's heart was touched, and he released the 
poor man from his promise, becoming so exhila- 
rated with his own unexpected generosity that 
when the monkey in gratitude began to exhibit 
some of his choicest tricks, the lord was moved 
to vigorous imitation; and the play (called >^^ 
^^«) closed with a series of cleverly performed 
feats of agility. Then the screens were once 
more closed, while farther courses of the dinner 
progressed. 

The usual singing, and girls plaj-ing the sami- 
sen, went on at inter\'als, as well as songs by old 
men ; and the famous no dance was superbly 
performed in the most elegant of ancient cos- 
tumes. 

Another sort of dance, in stately measure, 
called gaisen^ followed, by three girls in black and 
gold, a celebration of certain victories in t'nt late 
war. Afterward a comedy was actei ' ^ r -. 

old man in search of a wife, a ' ri.i:r-r- 
agent," and a veiled female, who subseqn : 
disclosed a hideous face. This play was lalltd 
fukitori, or choosing a wife by placing t' ' 

A famous juggler was next v:^"':' ^ 

remarkable feats ended by proc . . : 



i68 CORONA AND CORONET 

butterflies from nothing, until the whole room 
was full of the flutter of delicate wings ; suddenly- 
condensing, apparently, a magnificent white cock 
stood upon the magician's hand, and surveyed 
the company loftily. 

Another play, later in the evening, related to 
incidents of the Chinese war, entertainingly in- 
terpreted by our faithful friends, and followed by 
the Maple Club dance, a graceful performance 
in which all the beautiful costumes were orna- 
mented with designs of maple leaves, — as indeed 
everything is in the house itself. 

The closing scene was charming ; several pretty 
girls were scrubbing white linen, and beyond, 
a background of attractive landscape showed 
yards of similar linen drying. The whole thing 
finally resolved itself into a dance where all went 
through a variety of steps and evolutions to- 
gether, flourishing the white cloth above their 
heads, twining and untwining the long strips in 
every variety of lithe posturing, with which the 
most ardent pupil of Delsarte could not compete. 

All these performers, except the old men and 
the classic actors in the first piece, were girls be- 
longing to the Maple Club. The charm of these 
professional entertainers, even in much simpler 
places than the Maple Club, is indescribable. 
But where everything is strictly high class, the 
maidens had an ineffable touch of dainty refine- 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 169 

ment. Late in the evening, dinner and enter- 
tainment having lasted over five hours, Chinese 
tea, water-ices, and lady-fingers closed the repast, 
in compliment to the foreign guests. 

Riding away amid the pretty sayonara of the 
assembled establishment, our feeling of regret 
was most genuine that the stately, courteous, 
slowly moving life of the old days should ever 
give way before innovations of a busy modern 
civilization which all too soon will find no time 
for ancient customs. It is pleasant to see that 
the calm and unhurried politeness which causes 
acquaintances meeting on the street to stop and 
slowly bow low three times to each other has not 
yet wholly given place to the curt nods of the 
Western world, — all that the rushing life of an 
American business street seems willing to per-' 
mit. Japanese men who still wear the graceful 
gray silk and black gauze native dress seem to 
preserve intact the spirit and expression of old 
time courtesy. 

European costume at business or office seems 
to possess a curious power of imposing foreign 
manners therewith ; although a long time must 
elapse before inborn graciousness will be suffi- 
ciently lost for a Japanese to be mistaken for a 
veritable foreigner. 

The then American minister, Mr. Dun, Sec- 
retary of Legation during our former visit, was 



170 CORONA AND CORONET 

absent in America, but the Charge d' Affaires, 
Mr. Herod, with his charming wife, omitted no- 
thing in the way of Legation hospitahty. 

Their home, filled with treasures from artistic 
corners of Tokyo, undiscovered by the tourist ; 
their white-robed native servants ; windows wide 
open to the hot night ; pMtkah wafting welcome 
breezes — how deliciously familiar and weighted 
with memory was the scene of that last dinner 
before the expedition departed for the mysterious 
north ! 

All necessary official arrangements made,— 
passports issued, apparatus safely stowed and 
started for Hakodate on the Sakura-maru, — the 
Astronomer, with the Musician, Chief, and their 
assistants, among them the second mate Andrew, 
the Japanese cook and his staff, also set forth in 
the same direction by train, with all lesser para- 
phernalia for science as well as enforced house- 
keeping in remote Kitami province. The pho- 
tographer, Mr. Ogawa (also our photographer 
during the former Japan eclipse at Shirakawa in 
1887), was to follow within a few days, and the 
interpreter detailed by Government would join 
the expedition at Sapporo. 

Passes and official documents insured a more 
than obsequious attention from all railway em- 
ployees, who speedily emptied an entire first-class 
carriage at Tokyo for the expedition, all of whom 



DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION 171 

Started off in the best of spirits for Aomori, the 
northern port of the main island. Thence a 
steamer conveyed them across the strait seventy 
miles to Hakodate, on the southern coast of 
Yezo, to meet the Sakura-maru, the members of 
the expedition joining their apparatus on board 
for the trip to Otaru on the west coast, where 
the special steamer Suruga - maru, already dis- 
patched, took the entire party for the long voy- 
age to Esashi. 



CHAPTER XVII 



IN FAMILIAR HAUNTS 



Nobody can revisit with absolute impunity a place once loved and de- 
serted. 

The " unscientific contingent " of the Coronet 
party had classified themselves boldly ; the expe- 
dition members proper were no less distinctly 
arrayed. One of the company, however, could 
not be absolutely identified with either. By 
no means learned enough to belong wholly to 
the specialists, her superficial attainments in the 
heavenly science prevented her unchallenged 
acceptance as one of the division which declared 
themselves "know-nothings." Her wise resolve 
in consequence, therefore, was to enjoy the best 
in the programmes of both. To this end she 
watched the expedition depart for northern Yezo 
in comfortable consciousness that after a month 
the eclipse camp would be in readiness to re- 
ceive her and her humble assistance, — while 
happy journeys with the non-scientific friends 
would fill the intervening weeks. 

Away from Yokohama changes in the last few 
years are not as apparent. To be sure, the genuine 



IN FAMILIAR HAUNTS 173 

old swords, dispersed at first so carelessly, are no 
more to be picked up in every shop, and ancient 
robes of state and classic kakemono (scroll pic- 
tures) can be found no more at bargains ; but the 
native life goes on much in its normal manner as 
soon as the immediate influence of the foreigner 
becomes less. 

Primitive natives even now do not willingly 
eat three slices of pickled daikouy a favorite 
vegetable, since legend has it that a man doomed 
to death for some crime ate three slices at his 
last meal on earth. Two or four are therefore 
preferred. Watering the streets is still accom- 
plished with much simpHcity — by "joggling" 
out of a cart, scattering with dippers, spilling 
from buckets, or squirting with little force 
pumps. 

The hotel where visitors formerly stayed in 
Tokyo was the Sei-yo-ken, near the foreign com- 
pound Tsukiji. It purported to be a foreign hotel, 
and so it was as to cuisine and beds ; but it so 
recently had emerged from Japanese ways that it 
remained very picturesque, from the moist little 
entrance courtyard with ferns and growing deco- 
rations, to the Japanese attendants in native 
dress. Few now resort to the modest Sei-yo- 
ken, travelers being fonder of staying at the Im- 
perial hotel, large, airy, and impressive, where 
the guest might imagine himself in one country 



174 CORONA AND CORONET 

as much as another, except for the jinrikisha in 
waiting near the entrances and their attendant 
coolies. If one now speaks of the Sei-yo-ken, he 
is generally supposed to mean its branch estab- 
lishment, the attractive tea-house of the same 
name in Uyeno Park. 

The park itself seems little changed ; the trees 
are larger, the shady paths more beautiful ; and 
even midsummer imagination can picture the 
wonderful arcades in cherry-blossom time — 
the whole air one exquisite haze of pink per- 
fume. 

In the great lotus pond buds were beginning 
to take shape amid rich green leaves ; and the 
magnificent Golden Gate where ends a long 
avenue of stone lanterns was like a fresh crea- 
tion, its superb restoration having been accom- 
plished soon after our other visit. 

Shiba temples did not fail of their earlier 
charm, where richly decorated altars show golden 
gleams of lotus and incense burner, vase and 
candlestick, with calm Buddhas gazing immov- 
ably into far-off space, and ceilings whose every 
panel is a separate study ; with mystic odor of 
incense filling the dusky interior, and placid-faced 
priests moving silently about with shaved heads 
and ecclesiastical robes. 

Formerly visitors had to remove their shoes 
before entering the cool, dimly lighted temples 



IN FAMILIAR HAUNTS 175 

with their exquisitely lacquered floors. But 
the spirit of change has touched these imme- 
morial shrines, and now coolies pull over the 
boots of foreign visitors a sort of soft white 
stocking, or tabi, which they tie deftly round the 
ankle, — a tribute, no doubt, to the constantly 
recurring visits of persons from over seas, to 
whom taking off shoes means a longer and more 
elaborate operation than slipping the simple 
wooden clog from the foot of a Japanese guest. 
Nine years before I had been an object of intense 
interest to a whole congregation from a temple 
service, and to several of the ministering priests 
as well, all of whom followed me out for the 
novel experience "of watching a foreigner button 
her boots. But now the operation itself is no 
longer necessary. 

The great tomb of the second Shogun, the 
largest specimen of gold lacquer extant, was to 
me even more impressive than before. More 
pathetic, too, were the memorials of the forty- 
seven faithful Renins — more closely human 
and personal the swords, the worn old garments, 
kakemono, and ornaments; even their graves in 
the shade spoke touchingly of a loyal constancy 
ennobling to the annals of any country. 

Certainly two visits should always be made to 
a distant land ; the first grows luminous in the 
light of the second, and together they throw a 



176 CORONA AND CORONET 

clear radiance upon the inner spiritual meaning 
of its life and story. 

That greatly abused word, picturesque, can 
perhaps be most properly applied in Tokyo to its 
moats, with banks sometimes turfed in vivid 
green, or walled with stone, from the top of 
which fine old pines lean their crooked branches 
low down toward the water. The white walls of 
the old Tokugawa Castle still rise in a tangle of 
gnarled pines, though the dwelling itself was 
burned in the Revolution (1868), and the streets 
make innumerable sudden turns through and 
around ancient fortifications, adding an immense 
charm to jinrikisha riding in the great capital. 

In one of the pleasantest quarters stands the 
Peeresses' School, which, as its name indicates, 
daughters of nobles only may attend. One of its 
leading teachers is a brilliant young woman who, 
as a little child, was of that first famous group of 
Japanese girls (including the present Countess 
Oyama) sent to America for a foreign education 
more than twenty-five years ago. Living chiefly 
in Washington, where I remember her as a fasci- 
nating child of high-bred manner, studying later 
at Bryn Mawr, and returning to her native coun- 
try while still young, she combines the best of 
both civilizations. 

The little peeresses have a delightful spot for 
their educational efforts. They are charming 



IN FAMILIAR HAUNTS 177 

girls, and the refined type of face is in striking 
contrast to that constantly seen thronging the 
streets. All wore native dress, often exceed- 
ingly rich and handsome, occasionally a royal 
purple kimono or obi ; and their demeanor was 
exquisitely courteous and graceful, noticeably so 
even in a land where fine manners extend to all 
classes. 

Modern culture and that of the old regime are 
here successfully united ; and while thorough in- 
struction in English was going forward in one 
room, in another a grave and elderly Japanese 
scholar was giving punctilious care to the intri- 
cacies of Japanese penmanship — would it were 
with us as much of a fine art ! There a young 
girl was learning the elaborate form necessary 
in removing a kakemo^io properly from the wall ; 
here, poetry and classics were studied faithfully 
by the gentle daughters of an ancient nobility. 

All went on without fret or hurry ; composed 
and gracious earnestness were everywhere appar- 
ent. At recess there was no noise, or shadow of 
confusion, but a great deal of bowing to teacher 
and guest as the classes filed out ; and during 
their recreation the best of merry manners pre- 
vailed. The lovely garden was rich in verdure 
and artistic arrangement, and a soft rain gave 
additional freshness to every growing thing. 

One well-remembered haunt (the Nakadori) for 



178 CORONA AND CORONET 

picking up bits of old lacquer and bronze and 
porcelain, and ancient embroideries, seemed to 
have felt the touch of foreigners in more ways 
than one ; and prices, still elastic, began at 
heights never dreamed a few years ago, descend- 
ing with greater reluctance. Genuine articles, 
too, are rare in the little street, and modern imi- 
tations frequent. Still, with care and discrimi- 
nation beautiful things may still be found in its 
precincts. Without sidewalks, each shop wide 
open, owners placidly smoking in the midst of 
their wares, the customer strolls along the way 
from one to the other, seating himself on the 
edge of any shop floor as fancy strikes him, his 
jinrikisha slowly following, its amiable coolie 
ready to assume entire charge of purchases. 

Unfailingly reliable, no one of the multitude 
of wooden boxes containing vase or lacquer or 
whatnot, carefully tied with small twine handles 
for convenient carrying, is ever mislaid or unac- 
counted for by the kurumaya. 

Of course in these attractive shops the pur- 
chaser must depend chiefly upon his own judg- 
ment of quality and value ; but near by are two 
responsible places where prices are definitely 
fixed, each article precisely as represented. In 
one of them is shown the cloisonne without visi- 
ble wires, invented by Namikawa, whose work 
is a dream of beauty. All in soft, delicate tints, 



IN FAMILIAR HAUNTS 179 

— dim moons with sprays of ethereal cherry 
blossoms {saktira) dashed across them, faint 
mountains against ineffable skies, with a sug- 
gested bird or two — the thought is in every case 
poetically conceived and executed, one large piece 
having occupied Namikawa for nearly four years. 
The old man himself, modest, retiring, and ex- 
ceedingly refined, bears marks of the true artist 
in every expression and movement. 

Across the street is a permanent exhibition 
of works of art by the leading masters of Japan 
in their specialties. Ivory carvings of wonderful 
beauty and skill, bronzes, lacquer, porcelains — 
everything is of the finest, with prices which may 
not be lowered. 

A pleasant habit among reliable dealers in 
Japan when sending their bill to one person who 
has bought several articles of large value, is not 
to make a discount, but instead to give a "pre- 
sent," perhaps something admired by the cus- 
tomer but not finally included in his chosen pur- 
chases. 

Only two or three days remained before the 
Coronet would start on her southern trip ; one of 
these was the Fourth of July, a famous day in 
the happy port of Yokohama. All ships in har- 
bor were lavishly decorated with countless flags 
and pennants, the American admiral gave a re- 
ception on the Olympia, noontime salutes of 



i8o CORONA AND CORONET 

twenty-one guns from the men-of-war made the 
harbor reverberate, day fireworks filled the air 
with brightness, and a special tiffin at the Grand 
Hotel (where well-remembered, dusky Cingalese 
in tortoise-shell combs and flowing white draper- 
ies still displayed their wares on the veranda) 
was attended by scores of pleasant people. 
Early in the afternoon various feats of juggling 
took place on the lawn at the landward entrance 
of the hotel, and a baseball game was played on 
a fine field, between a Japanese nine and another 
made up chiefly of sailors from the war vessels. 
The Americans won, but the Japanese played 
well, their running, and sliding to bases, being 
particularly agile. 

In the evening various events of a social na- 
ture went forward on shore and in harbor, bril- 
liant fireworks and illuminations flashed over 
the quiet sea ; and our national holiday became 
in retrospect dignified and invested with a cer- 
tain elegance as well as crude patriotism. 

But Kobe and the Inland Sea would not come 
to the Coronet, so turning her bow lightly to- 
ward the south, good - bys were said to the 
friendly harbor, and the pretty craft sailed airily 
off down the bay, and along the coast. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

SOUTHWARD 

Praise the sea, but keep on land. 

Herbert, Jacula P-rudenium. 

It was unmistakably typhoon season. The 
Coronet plunged at once into a gale, with higher 
seas than any experienced during our whole voy- 
age across the Pacific. Even after seven or eight 
thousand miles of recent training, some of the 
company were unhappy because of violent pitch- 
ing. A story was recalled at which we had scorn- 
fully laughed when first related on board : — 

" Friends," said the captain of a steamer labor- 
ing in a fatal storm, " We must prepare for death. 
We shall go down in an hour." 

" Heavens," groaned a passenger, " must we 
live an hour yet ! " 

After a tumultuous night breakfast-time found 
us back in Yeddo Bay, anchored farther down 
than before, near the light-ship and outside the 
breakwater. The morning sea was very calm and 
pale, and covered with small fishing-boats. 

Our friends on the Olympia proceeded at once 
to engage in conversation by signal flags. Em- 



i82 CORONA AND CORONET 

barrassing questions were asked as to this humble 
return, after our refusal of several invitations on 
account of immediate necessity for reaching Kobe. 
All of which were answered from the Coronet 
with unabated cheerfulness. 

The International Signal Code contains all one 
could possibly wish to say at sea ; translation of 
remarks from the Olympia was quite exciting, 
as well as composition of replies, and selecting 
proper flags to express them. 

In addition to a flag for every consonant, there 
is an "answering" pennant, one for "yes" and 
one for "no," with every sort of combination. 
" More help is required," for instance, is D C V B ; 
"thanks," RSJ; and sentences for all circum- 
stances and conditions fill two or three hundred 
pages, with special appeals for help in emergen- 
cies, as " I am on fire," or " I am sinking." 

For a few hours we lay still, until the wind had 
lessened outside ; then, toward sunset, with B D R 
(" good-by ") fluttering, the Coronet once more 
set forth, on a quiet sea. 

Until darkness Fuji was magnificently in evi- 
dence, and constantly changing foregrounds made 
new pictures all the evening. Sometimes a steep, 
sharp bluff, then a line of soft green hills ; once 
a large fleet of fishing boats seemed lying at his 
feet. Even the clouds in this artistic land are 
decorative, their long, wavy, golden lines like the 



SOUTHWARD 183 



conventional cloud - shapes of kakemono or em- 
broidery or carving. Once a huge dragon in bril- 
liant yellow lay just above Fuji's sombre crown; 
again, fleeing women, elusive mountains, and on- 
rushing animals. For hours this splendid, shifting 
spectacle continued, about and above the grim, 
faultless peak, until night fell and land and water 
became one mass of quiet darkness under the 
starlit sky, a dull, volcanic glow from Vries Island 
touching the east with sullen light. 

Almost a week passed in delightful but some- 
what aimless sailing along the coast; baffling 
breezes alternated with dead calms, or what ap- 
peared to be beginnings of gales, with an uncer- 
tain feeling in the air, and typhoon color in the 
sunsets. Slowly the idea was accepted that yacht- 
ing along the Japan coast in July and August 
affords unsatisfying recreation. Reluctantly it 
was abandoned. Although already far passed, a 
landing in Suruga Gulf was the most available 
place, at the little town of Shimidzu. Thither the 
Coronet's bow was repointed, that her owner and 
his guests might proceed overland to Kyoto and 
Kobe, the yacht afterward returning to her Yoko- 
hama anchorage to await our return. 

But Shimidzu is a closed port, and whether this 
unexpected influx of foreigners could obtain per- 
mission to land was by no means sure. All one 
bright, sparkling forenoon the Coronet was beat- 



i84 CORONA ANLK CORONET 

ing up the beautiful gulf. Fuji splendidly domi- 
nates this whole region, and the bay is hemmed 
in by lesser hills and mountains, green to their 
cultivated summits, and touched by lovely haze. 
Thatched houses line the shore, and an occasional 
temple shows the fine lines of its roof higher in 
the sunny air, while terraces of vines and tea 
plants rise behind. 

Word had apparently gone forth that a foreign 
vessel was coming, and from villages along the 
coast, fifteen or sixteen miles away, gathered the 
sampans — filled with a curious crowd, most of 
whom had never seen an American before, much 
less an American yacht. Closer they clustered, 
more numerous as Shimidzu was approached, gaz- 
ing with undisguised amazement, entirely different 
from the spoiled sampan scullers of Yokohama. 

Anchoring boldly in these forbidden waters, a 
native man-of-war was discovered near the shore, 
the red sun-rays from a central orb on the flag of 
the Imperial Navy fluttering gayly in the pleasant 
breeze. Very soon an imposing boat set forth 
from the vessel's side, and two officers came on 
board, one of whom spoke a few words of Enghsh. 
It was carefully explained to them through our 
interpreter, Okita, that baffling winds, stress of 
weather, in short, while on the way to Kobe, had 
necessitated our unexpected advent in their midst. 
Permission to land was asked, and at once and 



SOUTHWARD 185 



most graciously granted, even before our special 
passports were shown, with a great bundle of doc- 
uments to Japanese dignitaries. 

Omnipresent police also made their visit of in- 
spection ; but nothing could exceed the courtesy 
with which the yacht's company was treated, 
while scrutiny from thickly crowding sampans 
was entirely friendly, if still amazed. OfEcials in 
all departments of the government knew of the 
expedition; but to ignorant fishermen, and peas- 
ants surrounding us as we landed, we were an 
unexplained wonder, certainly novel and probably 
grotesque. 

In a procession of seven jinrikisha, the little 
town was traversed, and we were out upon the 
Tokaido, toward Shizuoka, the nearest railway 
station, Alfred and Okita following to watch the 
two absurd tipcarts laden with our kori (baskets) 
and drawn by women. And Japan unadulterated 
and chiefly unadorned ran out to witness the pass- 
ing. Young mothers with blackened teeth, and 
chubby babies on their backs, little sisters with 
heavy brothers on theirs, schoolboys in kimono 
well tucked up into their obi, and boys and girls 
without any kimono or obi at all ; occasionally an 
old man arrayed in a garment of green mosquito 
netting — all flocked to the street as our train of 
kuruma went by. 

It was a poor little village, yet the wide-open 



i86 CORONA AND CORONET 

houses were clean, and through the parted screens 
at the back could always be seen small and taste- 
fully arranged gardens, dear to even the humblest 
Japanese. Making match-boxes appeared a pre- 
vailing industry, with silk spinning, and weaving 
cloth. Hollyhocks grew profusely, and countless 
blossoms of hydrangea were fastened on door- 
posts. Trumpet-vines flaunting great scarlet and 
yellow flowers covered many a little house — 
stately lotus was beginning to show fair pink buds 
in wayside ponds, and the shrilling of cicadae 
filled the summer afternoon. 

Rice-fields were full of cultivators, men and 
women and children, who straightened their bent 
backs for a moment, looking up stolidly at the 
passing jinrikisha, their dull faces hardly capable 
of expressing even surprise. 

Toward Fuji the mountains were blue and hazy, 
though the king himself had withdrawn ; and the 
road was lined with young cryptomerias, not a 
hundred feet high, like those bordering the glori- 
ous avenue toward Nikko ; and groves of bamboo 
tossed their delicate green leaves in the warm air. 

Shaded by ferns, and not very clean, — probably 
rioting ground for countless families of microbes, 
— streams of water flowed through the streets, 
beautiful if deadly ; and over them leaned women, 
artlessly arrayed, washing vegetables in the run- 
ning water. Occasionally some child or young 



SOUTHWARD 187 



girl would catch sight of this procession advancing 
far down the road ; she would instantly vanish, 
rushing frantically for the rest of the family, only 
to return streetward in hot haste with grand- 
mothers and babies to gaze till our disappearance. 
A few smiled amiably in answer to smiles of 
greeting from the jinrikisha, but many seemed 
too dazed to apprehend the fact of a common 
humanity. 

Once a whole school passed, walking decorously, 
two by two, conducted by their teachers, the little 
girls in front in scarlet petticoats, the boys in 
gray divided skirts, with high, stiff belts. They 
examined the foreigners with interest, though de- 
void of rustic surprise. 

Time in Shizuoka was not sufficient to visit its 
old castle, or temples. The little hotel has three 
or four ''foreign " rooms, bare and unhomelike, 
the native portion neat and attractive like all good 
Japanese inns. 

European food was served ; but attempts to 
adopt and imitate things Western were pathetic ; 
in the tokonoma (niche or recess), usually sacred 
to artistic kakemono and accompanying vase or 
bronze, hung a map of the Canadian Pacific rail- 
way. 

The world is undoubtedly progressing, but in 
just which direction is not always apparent. 



CHAPTER XIX 

GIFU AND THE CORMORANT FISHING 

; For flying at the brook, I saw not better sport these seven years' day. 

Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. ii. i. 

A NATIVE inn of especial charm is the Tamaiya 
at Gifu. Dehciously clean, the rooms open off 
shining corridors upon lovely outside verandas 
overhanging mossy garden courts, ponds full of 
goldfish, blue porcelain jars, stepping-stones, 
shrubbery, and stone lanterns. 

The sliding screens of old gilt were decorated 
with spirited drawings of horses and scenery, 
beautiful metal ornaments, and fine carving. Ceil- 
ings were of delicate wood paneling, or paintings 
of flocks of ducks. Little closets or cupboards 
for the few dainty conveniences in each room, 
bedding, mosquito nets, and so forth, had doors 
decorated in monochrome drawings ; the hibachi 
(braziers) were exceptionally handsome bronze. 
The tokonoma had each its fine scroll picture, and 
stand of lacquer holding an incense burner, or 
perhaps a porcelain vase of tall grasses or spray 
of blossoms arranged with the consummate skill 
of typical Japanese art. The proprietor, a man of 



GIFU AND THE CORMORANT FISHING 189 

much refinement, was a collector of ancient paint- 
ings. 

On moonless nights from May to October cor- 
morant fishing is in progress upon the Nagara 
river at Gifu, a spectacle very popular with Japa- 
nese travelers. After it was quite dark jinrikisha 
from the inn conveyed us through the city and 
across the river. The little shops were wide open, 
and many persons coming and going through 
the narrow streets. Flaring torches have largely 
given way to lamps, and an artistic paper lantern 
may sometimes, in these latter days, be found 
intimately associated with a modest incandescent 
light. But the kuriLinaya carry their tall, narrow 
lanterns, and run very rapidly. 

Many queer little turns around dark corners 
brought us to a long bridge which by no means 
went straight across the river, but had several 
curves and angles in its passage over the Nagara. 
Small boats on the dark water beneath slowly 
drifted down stream, burning a few boughs to 
attract fish ; but these were merely amateurs. 

Below the bridge could be heard a rush of falls, 
and a dark and heavily wooded hill rose high 
against sky but a shade less black. A sharp turn 
brought our whole picturesque procession to a 
halt at the farther bank, where a large native 
crowd had collected, and our pleasure-boat lay 
awaiting us. 



190 CORONA AND CORONET 

.Everything was in holiday attire, and stepping 
on board the decorated craft we felt as if a nat- 
ural part of this festive scene. Nearly all the 
boat, except a high and pointed bow, was taken up 
with a pretty, matted room under a light wood 
ceiling, the sides of paper screens now pushed 
widely apart, the opening draped with pale blue 
curtains and blue and pink lanterns swinging all 
around the roof. 

Swarthy and half naked coolies immediately 
pushed off into the river, our boat becoming one 
of a fleet, the others filled with Japanese pleasure 
parties, also being poled up the stream. The 
river was very wide and dark ; far across was a 
shingly beach ; beyond, a high, dusky hill. 

Three attractive geisha, engaged to entertain 
us before reaching the scene of cormorant fishing, 
now took gracefully upon themselves the duties of 
hostesses — tea first and a musical programme 
after. 

The oldest played the samisen (three-stringed 
instrument) ; the second, who sang, was about six- 
teen, wearing an enormous and curiously tied obi, 
long enough to reach the floor, and many orna- 
ments in her hair. The youngest could not have 
been over thirteen, but her hair was also burdened 
with scarlet and silver and golden adornments, 
and with her palm she beat a little red, tasseled 
drum. Both the younger girls were in crape 



GIFU AND THE CORMORANT FISHING igi 

kimono of blue and scarlet, and their names signi- 
fied "the small wave," and "the sweet bell of a 
Shinto shrine." 

Various songs and dialogues were performed, 
and simple but graceful fan dances. With bright 
scarfs tied over their hair, they assumed pom- 
pous expressions and went through one humor- 
ous little play. Many of the words were merely 
nonsense syllables, and the melody was easy to 



^ fe^s^ g ^^nSBS i 




etc. 



remember. The music is founded upon the har- 
monic minor scale, and melodies rarely end upon 
the tonic, which has apparently no musical value 
in Japan. 

Suddenly out of the darkness boys and men 
appeared in startling nearness, walking by in the 
water, their bare brown legs glistening and their 
dark blue kimono tucked high up. The effect 
was curious, to say the least, — boats and walking 
figures close together in the same stream ; but 
feeling a slight scrape, and looking over into the 
water, it was found very shallow, with a shadowy 
bed of variegated pebbles. 

Singing frogs made lovely music all through 



192 CORONA AND CORONET 

the merry evening, and as it grew later the little 
maids finally prepared a Japanese supper, — eels 
and rice, fish and seaweed. 

After a while a certain commotion up stream 
indicated we were near the famous fishing. Six 
brilliant lights seemed drifting downward, and in a 
moment they surrounded us. Six- boats had each 
an iron cage swung forward over the water, full of 
brightly burning wood which threw a wide glare. 
In each bow stood a man holding twelve cords 
attached to as many cormorants, large, black 
water birds, struggling and screaming and diving 
in every direction. Not to tangle all those lines 
required the skill of a circus driver, as each bird 
went its own way in search of the fish it instantly 
swallowed. 

But the unusual part of this method of fishing 
is that a heavy iron ring at the base of the cor- 
morant's neck is so tight as to allow only the 
smallest fish to pass through. All others lodge 
in the throat, and when that is full the bird is 
hauled back into the boat, and made to disgorge 
what it has just been at such trouble to obtain. 
That a bird should thereafter immediately desire 
to go fishing again seems odd, but its ardor is 
unabated, and it rushes once more into the fray 
with ever new enthusiasm. Three thousand of 
the ai, a sort of trout, is not a large evening's 
catch for a single boat. 



GIFU AND THE CORMORANT FISHING 193 

The scene was unique, — flaring faggots, half 
naked boatmen, the dusky river full of brightly 
lighted pleasure craft and moving figures, baskets 
of shining fish, and the excited and fluttering 
birds. 

Each man is greatly attached to his cormorants, 
and if by any chance they have not managed to 
swallow enough small fish for proper nourish- 
ment, others are given them from the catch for 
a good supper. Then they are tucked into basket 
cages to rest until the next night's sport. 

And so pleasure-boats and fishing-boats drifted 
down the river together ; the jinrikisha were wait- 
ing, and through dark and quiet streets, over the 
long bridge and around unexpected corners ran 
the little procession, dashing into the Tamaiya 
courtyard soon after midnight. 



CHAPTER XX 



KYOTO 



The pine is the mother of legends. 

Lowell, Reverie. 

" Madam," said a courtly Japanese gentleman 
to an American single lady of uncertain age, "you 
remind me of our beautiful pine-tree." 

" Ah ! " she replied, visibly flattered, " and 
may I ask in what way .^ " 

" Because, although you are so old, you are ever 
green," he answered suavely, quite unaware that 
he had failed to pay her a supreme compliment. 

This incident came to mind when rolling com- 
fortably through the city of Kyoto, across the 
rushing river, which seemed to have as much dry 
and stony bed as actual channel, and past innu- 
merable temple gates toward the Yaami Hotel. 
Glorious conifers thickly covered the surrounding 
hills, and the hotel itself is set in a background of 
towering cryptomerias, sombre, stately, beautiful. 
Truly one might be compared to many things 
worse. 

The famous cherry-tree in the city park was 
surrounded by an amiable, strolling crowd of wo- 
men and children, and in a moment the outer 



KYOTO 195 



gate of the Yaami was reached, and the upward 
walk, by mossy rocks, under large shade trees, up 
steps, past ponds and fountains and lanterns, led 
us to one of the verandas. 

The hotel stands on varying levels, to which 
there are many approaches. One may traverse a 
piazza, and entering, ascend ordinary stairs ; or 
by an outside stairway, and corridors overhanging 
a delightful little public road which looks like a 
forest path up to some mountain deity's inner- 
most shrine ; or he may walk farther through 
the garden, past another pond and up a few more 
mossy stone steps set with vague, artistic tiles, 
reaching thus the second or third story of another 
portion of the house. Tall evergreens clothing 
the hillside close by shelter temples and shrines 
enough to occupy many days without once visit- 
ing the city below. 

From the upper verandas the view has a truly 
magnificent sweep, taking in all of Kyoto, usually 
wrapped in a bit of dreamy haze, and the far, 
green-blue hills beyond — at night mysterious and 
impressive with myriad twinkling lights, under a 
young moon sailing in the high heavens among 
lightly drifting cloud. Fireflies flitted through 
heavy shrubbery below the balconies, murmuring 
water tinkled softly in the warm darkness, and 
the humming, buzzing, singing of insects in the 
garden filled the summer nights. 



196 CORONA AND CORONET 

Many foreigners were enjoying the artistic sur- 
roundings and excellent table of the Yaami — 
Americans, French, English, carrying national 
peculiarities as distinctively and carefully as if 
precious enough to pack in korL Late every 
afternoon, while taking tea in the breeze of an 
upper balcony, in cool kimono, we watched various 
parties of indefatigable shoppers and sightseers 
toiling up the steps, their faces red and hot with 
exertion, but a familiar expression of satisfied 
bargaining upon their moist features, as if reflect- 
ing upon the purchases dutifully carried in arm- 
fuls of little wooden boxes by jinrikisha men 
following. 

Radiantly beautiful were early mornings on the 
hillside. The exquisitely pathetic sweetness of a 
near-by temple bell often rang out at dewy dawn 
and over the silent city, with a call fit to beckon 
the soul straight out and away — anywhere, if 
only might be reached its realm of peace and 
forgotten pain. Its tone was a sacrament. Fra- 
grance from freshened gardens rose to the balco- 
nies, and finally the sun, still partly shrouded in 
morning mist, shone on the glistening verdure, 
and mere living led everything to rejoice with ex- 
ceeding gladness. 

Okita was very entertaining ; almost he might 
be reckoned as guide, philosopher, and friend. 
By profession an interpreter, he was invaluable 



KYOTO 197 



in all situations. Even half the legends and 
histories he related about shrines, persons, and 
scenes would have made an amusing and entirely- 
original volume upon the flowery kingdom. In 
temple, shop, or castle Okita was equally at home. 
Only at sea was he ever overcome by circum- 
stances. 

He was very comfortable upon the subject of 
religion, of which he said he had none, — Buddhist 
nor Shinto nor Christian. He laughed a great 
deal, with a funny little pucker of his nose quite 
irresistible. The Captain was "■ famous fellow " 
now, he said, both yacht and expedition had been 
written of so much in Japanese papers. Priests 
ministering at a Buddhist altar he called '* sacred 
fellows." When asked about his family Okita 
laughed heartily. " Had a wife one time," he 
said, " very nice woman — very nice. But I too 
young, so divorced her, ha ! ha ! " 

The Kamogawa is wide, shallow, sunny, crossed 
by countless bridges. Always there were chil- 
dren tumbling about in the water, women wash- 
ing, and lines of houses close to the edge, their 
balconies overhanging the stream. And there 
are canals bordered by willow-trees, and moats, 
and ever mountain backgrounds and birds flying 
decoratively against yellow sunset skies. 

Kyoto is credited with eight hundred temples. 
But it was Kyoto in large, ihipressionist effects — 



198 CORONA AND CORONET 

shrines, palace, castle, arts, scenery, all blended 
in one glowing memory rather than clearness of 
minute detail — which time permitted in this 
royal city of the centuries. Built five hundred 
years ago, the golden pavilion, its ceiling, walls, 
floor, balcony, and rafters overlaid with precious 
metal, was the favorite haunt of the Shogun Yo- 
shimitsu, whence he often gazed enraptured at 
the moon, or at the opposite hills, once covered 
with white silk for the pleasure of an Ex-Mikado 
who wished to imagine snow in summer heat. A 
dreamy morning was spent here, and in the beau- 
tiful grounds, a funny little boy reciting in high, 
artificial singsong, with a sudden drop into nor- 
mal tones at the end of each sentence, legends 
and history which must have lost much of their 
quaintness in translation, as he conscientiously 
pointed out the springs where Yoshimitsu bathed 
or drank and made tea, and every other especial 
spot. 

Myoshingi Temple is lofty beyond others, with 
almost a cathedral effect of space ; Nishi Hong- 
wanji has a superb series of apartments once 
used by the daimios, and decorated with golden 
screens ; Higashi Hongwanji was founded shortly 
after the other, about three hundred years ago, 
and burned just before the Revolution. The 
present edifice, only recently completed, is of 
noble proportions, and gorgeous decoration, — 



KYOTO 199 



abounding in panels of lotus on dull gold, and 
gleaming altars filled with rich art. 

Worshipers came in constantly, clapping their 
hands to draw the attention of deity, a cere- 
mony practiced with apparently equal effect upon 
any absentee, whether god or servant. The old 
Hawaiians also clapped their hands in praying, 
perhaps for the same reason, though their gods 
were of a less cultured variety. Buddhism hardly 
seems decadent when a new temple of such rich- 
ness is built and maintained by modern enthu- 
siasm. 

San-ju-Sangendo, as its name implies, supposably 
contains 33,333 images of Kwannon, goddess of 
mercy. Actually about a thousand, they represent 
the others by various computations, and as row 
after row of these golden ladies rises, one behind 
the other, each statue nearly life-size, the effect is 
overwhelming. An old attendant in the temple 
told us solemnly that all were miraculously made 
from a single willow-tree, pointing out also what 
he termed ** devil-protectors " on either side of the 
central figure. Certainly they should be effective 
in warning off all the powers of evil. 

Of course the goddess in her multitudinous 
representations has an occasional accident, and a 
hand or an arm must frequently be replaced. The 
divine repair shop was discovered, but not even 
by an offer of sen galore, nor by manifest appro- 



200 CORONA AND CORONET 

priateness to his profession, could our good Doctor 
prevail upon the attendant worthy to present him 
with a discarded nose or even a stray finger. 

Famous bells, among the largest in the world, 
fountains springing miraculously to avert confla- 
grations, historic carp, altars mystic with the 
incense of generations, — appreciation became 
almost pain, as day after day went by and we 
realized that year after year instead must pass 
before half could be seen, much less assimilated. 

I wish that young, middle-class Japan, in transi- 
tion state of costume, would not allow itself to 
appear incongrously projected upon a background 
of temple or castle walls. Practice with European 
clothes should go on remotely from these great 
monuments, " the finished f ashionings from a far 
past." 

From A. D. 793 to 1868 Kyoto was the capital 
city, and the buildings of the Mikado's palace 
cover many acres. But of far greater beauty is 
the former castle of the Shoguns ; without, for- 
tress-like and stern, even though the moat was in 
places filled with lotus in the glory of its blos- 
soming ; within, full of art and magnificence. In 
striking contrast to the plainness of the palace, 
it is a commentary upon the relation between 
Shoguns and nominal Emperor before the Revo- 
lution. Its rooms are a wilderness of golden 
screens painted by famous artists, with peacocks 



KYOTO 



and pine-trees of natural size, tigers and strange 
birds. The celebrated "wet heron" panel is not 
in very good preservation, though still marvelously 
fine ; two sparrows upon another are so natural 
that they once flew entirely away, Okita assured 
us, coming back of their own accord. Special 
permission must be obtained to enter either castle 
or palace, and guests inscribe their names in a 
book within the gates, where also may be read 
directions respecting behavior. Visitors are ex- 
pected to ** leave their overcoat, mitten, stick, 
walking - cane umbrella or whatever they take 
with them " to their own servants or the attendant 
before entering the buildings. 

The shops and industries of Kyoto — who can 
describe or resist their fascinations ! Delicious 
cups of tea welcome the purchaser, pretty sayo- 
nara attend his departure. Memorable are the 
rare and odd conceits of the vases and bowls of 
Seifu, the first ceramic artist in Kyoto, and de- 
scendant of famous potters ; and cloisonne to 
rejoice the soul is made by Namikawa. Of the 
same name as the inventor of cloisonne without 
wires in Tokyo, the two are alike in earnest and 
poetic feeling, enthusiasm, and utter absorption in 
their art. 

Namikawa's house is an education. In room 
after room of spotless neatness and beauty sit a 
few workmen on the floor, each with a tiny table 



CORONA AND CORONET 



holding wires, enamel, brushes, and all the para- 
phernalia of the art, sliding screens of glass open- 
ing upon a garden and pond, lovely if diminutive. 
Shrubs and flowers conceal an odd bamboo fence 
shutting out the city ; the pond has miniature 
rocky cliffs on diversified shores ; gold-fish and 
carp swim fearlessly as near the guest as possible ; 
brilliant blossoms brighten a corner. 

Upon our exclaiming over its beauty, the dear 
old artist said simply, " The workmen must have 
it to rest their eyes." Memory called up the 
scenery, with a few noteworthy exceptions, pro- 
vided for resting the eyes of those employed in 
American industries, — piles of ashes in rear en- 
closures, varied by tin cans and an occasional old 
boot. 

This prevailing love for the beautiful in all 
classes in Japan was well illustrated by the cook 
of an acquaintance in Kyoto, an illiterate man 
whom she one evening discovered sitting quietly, 
long after the hour, beside his untouched dinner. 
His reply to her question as to why he forgot his 
meal time was characteristic. As he pointed to 
the sky, with a radiant expression on his worn old 
face — "Who could eat," he exclaimed, "with such 
a sunset as that to look at ! " 

Truly we should entreat that apostles and mis- 
sionaries of the beautiful be sent us from Japan. 

Namikawa's cloisonne is worthy microscopic 



KYOTO 203 



Study. His backgrounds are largely rich lapis- 
lazuli. Shapes and decoration have much variety, 
though few pieces are kept on hand, this famous 
work being largely ordered, or bought in advance 
of completion. Of the specimens finished, several 
showed white cranes, long clusters of convention- 
alized wistaria blossoms, or the popular iris. The 
whole process of making, too, was watched, from 
the first design sketched upon the copper vase, 
to the final, often fifth or sixth polishing of the 
repeatedly fired enamel. 

The Nishimura embroideries were as fine in 
their way, — one particular screen remaining in 
memory as an almost perfect work of art. Its 
three panels, about six feet high, represented in 
solid stitches a thickly wooded hillside. The feel- 
ing for each sort of verdure was exquisitely por- 
trayed, — the deep pines where each " needle " was 
shown, delicate maples, and lighter foliage, yet 
the whole effect broad and noble. Above the hill 
was a pale blue sky full of shreds of trailing mist, 
some of which had drifted down across the trees, — 
an effect constantly seen in Japan, — while in the 
right-hand panel a magnificent waterfall tumbled, 
white and foaming, from a height, flashing through 
the green to spread itself out in a tumultuous 
brook beneath, flowing off and away through the 
other panels of this masterpiece. No one could 
imagine, without seeing it, that embroidery could 



204 CORONA AND CORONET 

be so wet, or a cloud of stitches so filmy. In 
quite a different way, Nishimura's cut velvets are 
scarcely less beautiful. Here, design and coloring 
are woven into the fabric, whose threads inclose 
tiny copper wires. Finally a workman with a small 
and exceedingly sharp knife cuts carefully along 
the top of each wire, making actual velvet of por- 
tions to be rich and dark in effect, but leaving 
uncut distant Fuji, skies, pale moons, or shining 
water. The wires carefully withdrawn, a modern 
but most lovely work of art is produced. 

Although vacation time, the Doshisha (One 
Purpose Company) was visited, that university 
founded by the late and greatly beloved Neesima, 
an Amherst graduate of 1870; and the girls* 
school close by, where a few pupils and teach- 
ers were found. The girls sang for us some 
weird native melodies, remarkable harmonies being 
supplied by a foreign teacher at a small organ. 
Harmonizing Japanese airs is an almost untried 
musical field, offering many curious opportunities 
for original effects. 

In the eighth year of Meiji (1875) the Doshisha 
was opened at Mr. Neesima's home, with eight 
pupils. Through untold discouragements this 
"puritan of the Orient" struggled on with his 
beloved institution, only to leave it at his death in 
1890 firmly established and prosperous, a tangible 
legacy from his devoted life, a monument to the 



KYOTO 205 



pervasive power of his magnetic, unswerving per- 
sonality. Through him Amherst College had be- 
come more widely known in Japan than perhaps 
any other institution, even before its later gradu- 
ates, Kanda, Kabayama, Uchimura, Sawayama, and 
others had also carried its fame to their native 
land. 

The Shinto festivals are full of beauty, despite 
the original simplicity of this faith. Happily 
timed was our Kyoto visit for one of these char- 
acteristic celebrations, a typical matsziri. The 
special day was July seventeenth, but all through 
the week the city wore a festive air, every house 
showing its new wooden bracket with a roof, under 
which hung a huge lantern. At twilight all were 
lighted, and gay drops of crimson or golden bril- 
liance flamed as well in arches, festoons, high 
loops along the buildings, — glowing, pulsating, 
quivering strings of tamed and decorative fire in 
luminous figures. It was a fairy scene. 

The evening of the sixteenth was particularly 
fine. Rockets flew hither and thither ; countless 
globes of pale or scarlet flame in double rows lined 
every street, theatres were ablaze with brightness 
and gaudy pictures, sounds of music and drum 
coming from within to the happy, surging crowd. 
Many pictures were very amusing, — one showing 
a huge man engaged in throwing people over a 
precipice who, in their unwilling descent, took all 



2o6 CORONA AND CORONET 

sorts of queer oriental attitudes. Everybody was 
lull of merriment, the babies out in full force. 
[Little stands for shaved ice were popular centres, 
and varieties of disastrous, cooling drinks flowed 
freely. 

iDwelling - houses, even the smallest, were in 
gala array, tiny interiors wide open to the street. 
Their usual straw mats were quite hidden, some- 
times by rugs, more often by heavily woven cotton 
with white storks or ducks on a dull red ground. 
Exceedingly decorative, my attempts to purchase 
one always failed, their owners declaring them 
heirlooms ; very old, exceedingly valuable, greatly 
prized, and only used during festivals. 

The walls of every room were hidden by hand- 
some gold or white folding screens, painted or 
embroidered, the hibachi being the only article 
which might be termed furniture in the room. 
So the whole effect was orderly and beautiful. In 
daytime the house fronts were decorated with 
floating curtains or strips with blue and white 
horizontal bars or other simple design. 

The universality of interest in the festival, the 
personal eagerness and pleasure shown by all, were 
delightfully refreshing. 

On the morning of the seventeenth an invita- 
tion came from the owner of a house on the route 
of the procession, to witness it from his roof. 
Upon reaching the ridgepole, sunshine was blind- 




A "FLOAT- IN MATSURI PROCESSION AT KYOTO 



KYOTO 207 



ingly hot, the gray tiles scorching, but a little 
platform for two persons was shaded by a big 
paper umbrella as canopy, and a brisk breeze tem- 
pered the heat. The street below was thronged, 
the procession just having reached Narachu's 
house as we arrived. 

High wagons or " floats " {dasht) draped with 
superb brocades and embroidered temple-hangings 
went slowly by, sometimes surmounted by a grow- 
ing pine or cedar, or perhaps the life-size figure 
of a man in classic armor or other old costume, 
engaged in brandishing a branch of cherry blos- 
soms in the face of an enemy upon imaginary 
battlefields — a " poetical fellow," explained Okita. 

Under the canopy of the float men and boys 
beat rhythmically on small drums, singing and 
throwing tufts or branches of "good luck " to the 
crowd, in the shape of green leaves enclosing 
sacred rice-cakes. At the front of one float, three 
girls, thickly powdered, were performing some 
stately ceremony ; on another two men stood on 
the projecting platform dancing fan dances. 

Children and young girls taking part in the 
festivals are not allowed to carry a parasol from 
their houses to the rolling cars, even if it rains, 
and not infrequently their handsome costumes are 
quite ruined. Each street is responsible for a 
float drawn by coolies living in its precincts, accom- 
panied by gentlemen on foot who also live in the 



2o8 CORONA AND CORONET 

street, — high-class worshipers at the temple, in 
their cool, gray silk ceremonial dress, carrying 
fans and wearing flat straw hats. At frequent 
halts their servants set down little stools upon 
which the gentlemen rested for a few minutes. 

The huge, unwieldy wooden wheels have no 
means of being guided ; so a coolie or two crouched 
along beneath like a new kind of coach dog, put- 
ting sticks under the wheels to turn them slightly 
to the right or left when they ran too near the 
happy crowd. 

'T was a merry time, light-hearted as to inhabi- 
tants, sunny and fragrant as to weather, pictur- 
esque and characteristic as to processions and 
decorations. Fair Kyoto, with your long, long 
story, your immemorial temples, your gay religious 
festivals, your mountains and pines, your exquisite 
art, your gardens and river! Beautiful Kyoto, 
sayonaral 



CHAPTER XXI 

NARA 



Framed in the prodigality of nature. 

Shakespeare, Richard III. ^ L 2. 

Nara, the Imperial Capital, 
Blooms with prosperity. 
Even as the blossom blooms 
With rich color and sweet fragrance. 

Japanese Poem. 



A HEAVY, tropical downpour had set in, with 
no cessation for days. Uji, its temples, famous 
tea-plantations, beautiful lotus pond, and Phoenix 
Hall (a reproduction of which was sent to the 
Exposition at Chicago) were seen through such a 
whirl of descending waters that, except a general 
impression of beauty, its memory is blurred and 
misty. Great danger of floods prevailed all over 
Japan, breaks in the railway line were constantly 
reported, and Nara was no exception to the 
general condition, looking half - drowned as we 
approached its historic groves. 

Rich in temples and monuments, its sitting 
Buddha, fifty-three feet high, is larger than the 
one near Yokohama ; the rich material is said to 
abound in gold and silver, yet as a work of art it 



210 CORONA AND CORONET 

seems less impressive than the Kamakura Dai- 
butsu, partly, perhaps, because that is in a noble 
park, while the one at Nara is dwarfed by the 
ancient temple inclosing its massive proportions. 
An escaping thief is reported, by the voluble 
coolies about, to have lived safely for three years 
by sacrilegious retirement into its nose. On each 
side are figures described as Myo-i-rin kwannon, 
on the left, " watcher of the noise of the world," 
awaiting with calm patience one word of wisdom 
or eternal truth from the babel of humanity ; and 
on the right, Kokuzo-bosatsu, god of the universe, 
holding one hand aloft. 

Early in the eighth century Nara became the 
capital, and was thenceforth known as Heijo, or 
castle of tranquillity. No less so now, more than 
a thousand years after, " the noise of the world '* 
scarcely comes near enough to its peaceful groves 
even to be watched. The little inn was charm- 
ing. The rooms opened on the customary out- 
side veranda, whose polished floor led to a few 
wide steps of green turf, — the entrance to a 
garden, somewhat larger than common, where 
quaintly arranged stepping-stones, bronze storks 
in various attitudes, and groups of pine and bam- 
boo formed the foreground for a placid lake lying 
beyond. Still beyond was a thickly wooded shore, 
here and there a pagoda or temple-roof amid the 
trees, and mountains over which drifting cloud 



NARA 211 



laid softly trailing fingers of mist far down their 
green sides, " as if one might climb into the hea- 
venly region, earth being so intermixed with sky," 
as Hawthorne wrote long years before of another 
land. 

Even the bronze storks looked wilted in the 
continual rain, — feathers bedraggled, attitudes 
dejected. 

A noticeable feature of Nara is its tame deer, 
wandering in street and park and temple grounds. 
Secure from harm, these sacred animals walk 
confidingly up to any passing jinrikisha, in anti- 
cipation of a liberal meal, which the rider is sup- 
posed to purchase from women standing con- 
veniently near. 

The Kasuga temple grounds are shaded by 
enormous and aged cryptomerias, making an im- 
pressive archway. The sun had briefly emerged, 
and countless rushing brooks and cascades filled 
this lovely spot with a cool murmur of falling 
water. Mossgrown stone steps lead up to 
shrine after shrine, past myriads of stone lan- 
terns placed as offerings by the devout, or in 
memory of friends, — perhaps to win heavenly 
favor for themselves. There are nearly two thou- 
sand of these lanterns, tradition relating that the 
oldest was given by Kobo Daishi, a famous priest 
and author of the Japanese alphabet ; an expert 
as well in the fine art of penmanship. He con- 



212 CORONA AND CORONET 

structed the alphabet in a poem, which roughly 
translated runs : — 

"Even the colors of flowers decay, and this world is like a 
dream. 
Nothing is constant, but we should not be asleep because the 
world is like a dream." 

I-ro-ha, the Japanese word for alphabet, or sylla- 
bary, opens the poem. 

We chanced on a special day at Kasuga Temple 
when a sacred dance was just being performed 
by young girls, whose ceremony was exactly and 
gracefully executed ; dignified posturing and bow- 
ing, precisely in unison, alternating with compli- 
cated evolutions with fans, and sticks of little 
bells. Two or three priests sang, and played 
upon flutes, sometimes a perfect sixth above the 
voices ; so there was actually a suggestion of 
harmony; though more often an interval utterly 
unmusical to Western ears. 

The girls were heavily powdered, but close to 
their hair the thick whiteness ended abruptly in 
a curve sharply defined. Their eyebrows were 
shaved, painted ones high on the forehead giving 
a curious expression of wondering innocence ; and 
their black hair, ornamented over the forehead 
with large white artificial flowers and twinkling 
pendants of gilt, was tied tightly back and allowed 
to fall straight down from the neck. They wore 
scarlet skirts and white kimono with figures in 




STONE LANTERNS AND CRYPTOMERIAS AT NARA 



NARA 213 



gold and blue ; two eri, inside kerchiefs of white 
and of scarlet, lay against their smooth throats. 
Very sober and dignified were these maidens, — 
as utterly in earnest as the solemn priestesses of 
the tea ceremony, with but a shadowy smile occa- 
sionally visible. This dance is called kagura 
(heavenly enjoyment). I paid one ye7t for my 
share in the lofty amusement, and a yens worth 
is sufficient ; but if one choose, he may stay all 
day and spend 'tviX.y yen. 

Four gods are worshiped at Kasuga Temple, 
ancient personages in Japanese mythology with 
memory-defying names, — Takemikatsu chi-no-mi- 
koto, Futsunushi-no-mikoto, Amatsukoyane-no-mi- 
koto ; while the fourth is a goddess, Himiongami. 

For over seventy years Nara remained the capi- 
tal of Japan, before Kyoto, but the Mikado's local 
palace has long since disappeared. Partly burned, 
the remainder was bought and carried off bodily 
by merchants and carpenters, for use in building 
their own houses. Altogether, seven emperors 
lived in Nara, and Kasuga Temple, built by Sho- 
toku, stands near the sacred hill Mykasa-yama, 
often sung in Japanese poetry. 

A fine pagoda, nearly as large but not so richly 
carved as the one at Nikko, belongs to still an- 
other temple, the Kobukuji ; it was built by the 
Empress Komyo, over a thousand years ago ; and 
everybody tells you that a superb pine before it is 
at least as old. 



214 CORONA AND CORONET 

Nara possesses also a very sacred though rather 
restless and impatient white horse, with bright 
blue eyes and bushy mane, an albino among ani- 
mals, securely fastened in a very small shrine, tail 
where one would expect the manger. But it i& 
easy for the passing traveler to feed him with 
beans for a quarter of a cent, and to worship or 
not as he chooses. This was but the fifth horse 
encountered in two weeks, so we were not forced 
to grieve actively over one of the articles in our 
passports, which forbids attending fires on horse- 
back. Japan is a land of fires, but not of saddle- 
horses. 

Struggling masses of turtle, goldfish, and carp 
contend for a bit of bread thrown into the pond 
(Sarusawa no Ike) ; a sheet of water chiefly fa- 
mous because centuries ago a certain young girl 
at the palace, thinking she had lost the Emperor's 
affection, here drowned herself. The monarch, 
coming afterward to its banks, composed in her 
honor a poem, now cut upon a stone slab standing 
some distance out from shore; its waters, he 
recites, can never become dry, because composed 
of the maiden's tears. 

Another story told by Nara people partakes 
more of the supernatural. A certain governor 
called Shijo caught one of the sacred tortoises 
from this pond, thinking to bake it in his pan, 
foreseeing an especially delicious meal. But when 



NARA 215 



he took off the cover — behold ! the imprisoned 
dainty had taken itself off miraculously, saved by 
compassion of the god of Kasuga. 

Summer rain descended softly during most of 
our days at Nara, — increasing occasionally to 
heaviest tropical intensity, and on the way to 
Kobe the whole country was practically under 
water. Rice-fields and gardens were submerged, 
little houses made islands of themselves, and 
small boys, arrayed with simplicity impossible to 
excel, paddled about ecstatically among trees and 
over fences. We afterward found that the entire 
island was seriously flooded, and railway travel 
everywhere interrupted. 



CHAPTER XXII 

YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA 

A level floor of amethyst, 
Crowned by a golden dome of mist, 

Longfellow. 

Since it had been found impracticable to take 
the Coronet into the Inland Sea and she had re- 
turned to Yokohama, the Captain had chartered 
a native steamer, the Miyako-maru, for the Sea 
trip, a craft somewhat larger than the Coronet, 
and carrying a crew of twenty-eight. 

Built exclusively for native use, the fittings of 
the Miyako-maru, including staterooms, height of 
ceilings, and galley appointments, were diminutive 
in scale ; causing much merriment in the com- 
pany, two of whom occupied the saloon, where 
they could stand upright if directly under the 
skylight. Ordinarily that apartment would carry 
thirty or forty native passengers. But the vessel 
was entirely new, and satisfactory, even if, as in 
Japanese inns, lesser toilet arrangements were in 
the public eye, and confined to one small brass 
basin, a pitcher, and a tumbler. 

Members of the crew were greatly interested in 
the foreigners, which class they had heretofore 



YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA 217 

had slender opportunity to observe, — nor did they 
neglect the occasion. 

The unclassified member of the party had at 
last to face a genuine division of the ways. To 
be sure of seeing the eclipse, now two weeks 
away, she must start at once upon the long jour- 
ney to Esashi, more than fifteen hundred miles 
intervening between Kobe, where the Miyako- 
maru awaited its passengers, and expedition head- 
quarters in Kitami Province. But starting at once 
meant abandonment of the trip through the far- 
famed Inland Sea. Methods of possible travel to 
northern Yezo were an unknown quantity ; how 
many days would be used in getting there en- 
tirely uncertain. Fear of being late for the eclipse 
prevailed, and reluctant good-bys were therefore 
said to the non- astronomical friends (who still 
hoped to reach Esashi by the ninth of August) at 
the very entrance of their trip through Japan's 
enchanted waters. 

Three of the voyagers upon the Miyako-maru 
have kindly lent me their Inland Sea journals in 
describing certain places not usually visited by 
foreigners, and a combination of portions of the 
three records has been effected, with occasional 
verbatim quotations. 

During the first day Awaji was passed, which 
according to tradition was earliest formed of all 
the lovely island group in the Sea ; and on reach- 



2i8 CORONA AND CORONET 

ing a land-locked harbor on the south shore of 
Shodoshima, the Miyako-maru cast anchor off 
Nomamura. Near by, and easily reached by a 
short row, is a tiny island with a torii and a neg- 
lected shrine to the goddess Benten. 

The scenery grew constantly more beautiful 
as hours and days went on, islands clustering so 
thickly that " exit seemed impossible, and entrance 
a, dream," strait after strait opening and closing in 
vistas of loveliness. Inland Sea currents were 
found very swift in places, twisting unwieldy junks 
around like toy boats. Even the staunch Miyako- 
maru was occasionally forced to hug the shore. 

At Tadotsu much curiosity was evinced as to 
the strange visitors ; and a train was taken there 
for Kotohera, to visit the Shinto temple of Kom- 
pira on a green hillside, where a god especially 
presiding over the fortunes of seamen is wor- 
shiped with unusual zeal. The Miyako-maru's 
native captain repaired thither at once, paying his 
devotions, like most sailors, with much fervor. 
Five hundred and seventy-two stone steps lead to 
the temple, — a warm climb on a July day. All 
the way little shops offered trinkets for pilgrims, 
and sacred horses demanded tribute from the 
faithful. The fine view and breeze rewarded the 
travelers, resting at the summit under grand old 
trees. The temple is simple ; one of its buildings 
contains a green goheiy the paper prayer of Shinto, 



YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA 219 

and a mirror ; there are, also, many paintings 
of scenes in storms, and fanciful accidents from 
which this deity is supposed to rescue his faithful 
worshipers. 

On a point just beyond Tomo a little temple 
to Kwannon was charmingly situated, approached 
by a covered stairway. Onomichi, " Tail city," is 
stretched along the narrow channel farther on, 
with several fine temples on the hillside, — a laby- 
rinth of islands, atmosphere dreamy, colors exqui- 
site. 

Ondo setOy or strait, could not be passed until 
full tide, which gave opportunity to anchor in a 
little bay where fishermen were spreading a net 
across the current, singing as they drew it. Pass- 
ing the narrow opening at any time seemed an 
impossible achievement. The ** hidden door " is 
exceedingly narrow, the current swift. On one 
side a stone lantern stood out in the water ; on 
the other a village so near that a pebble might 
have been tossed into its street. 

Wandering at one's own sweet will through the 
beauties of the Inland Sea, unrestricted by tra- 
ditions of regular trips taken by average tourists, 
is undoubtedly pleasant, save an occasional draw- 
back. The native captain suggested anchoring 
one night in the harbor of Kure ; during the late 
war, and still, an important naval station. Re- 
strictions against foreigners are so severe that 



CORONA AND CORONET 



special passports would have given the Coronet 
no permission to enter this harbor; but as the 
Miyako - maru was a Japanese vessel, sailing 
through these halcyon waters under the full sun 
flag, no trouble was anticipated. The journals 
tell the story : — 

"As we were preparing to anchor, a launch 
from the station came out, an officer boarding and 
demanding of the captain what he meant by com- 
ing in without showing special signals, giving his 
name and other information. It seems that all ves- 
sels, even in passing the harbor, must show these 
flags, and our captain had committed a grave mis- 
take, as our vessel was so new he had not yet 
received them from the Admiralty. He was in- 
formed that in this case he had no right to come 
in at all — and his reasons were asked. He re- 
pHed that the vessel was chartered by foreigners 
who were traveling slowly through the Inland 
Sea, and after much parley as to our purpose and 
destination, the launch returned to shore for in- 
structions from the head officer. It soon came 
back, with a subordinate officer on board who 
marched to our bridge and took command, order- 
ing us back 'through Ondo Strait. Passing the 
narrow channel once more in safety, he remarked 
that our captain was apparently experienced 
enough in these waters to have known better 
than to make the awkward blunder of entering 
Kure harbor without his flags. 



YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA 221 

"We cast anchor just where we had been an 
hour or two earher, and then heard that our cap- 
tain must be taken back to appear before the 
authorities at the station. 

" It looked seriously as if we might be delayed 
a long time, as the captain was liable to a fine of 
at least $75.00 and withdrawal of his license — 
even possible imprisonment ; and we were all 
practically under arrest, and might not be able 
to finish our cruise in time to get to the eclipse 
station in Yezo. 

" Expostulation with the officer now began. 
The objects of our pleasure trip were detailed, 
and what a serious matter it would be to delay us 
was shown ; our special passports were exhibited, 
also letters from the governor of Kobe asking 
especial courtesy from governors of all these pro- 
vinces. 

" This explanation happily worked a good effect. 
In consideration of the papers showing what 'fa- 
mous fellows ' we were, he said he would let the 
captain off. The young officer was very polite 
all through, assuring us that the difficulty did 
not concern us in the least except in delaying us. 
Okita added to possible horrors of the situation 
by telling us that the captain's children would 
probably have been given away for adoption, his 
wife divorced, and the home broken up. Instead 
he was. graciously pardoned. 



CORONA AND CORONET 



" We steamed as far as Nakashima in beautiful 
moonlight, thinking it wiser to get away before a 
possible change of mind at the naval station. But 
we went on the outer side of this island instead of 
braving the dangers of Ondo Strait for a third 
time. We all sat on the bridge and sang, under a 
brilliant night sky, gliding through water which 
sparkled like gold lacquer." 

A most beautiful as well as celebrated spot in 
the sea is the sacred island of Miyajima. Ap- 
proach to it was in the early morning, when a 
rosy mist of sunrise lay between the steamer and 
the hillside. Close to the shore lay boats of fish- 
ermen, who sang one refrain while in the boat 
drawing the net, and another when pulling it up 
on the beach. 

The island is unmistakable from its unique fea- 
ture, the famous torii of camphor wood, which at 
high tide stands well out in the water. And it is 
shrouded in an atmosphere of more legend and 
romance than hovers about either of the other 
famous places, which with it comprise the san-kei, 
"three great sights of Japan." 

At flood-tide the temple seems to float on a sil- 
ver sea ; and all the little dwellers of the deep 
pitch their tiny tents on its stone piers. Bridges 
and galleries connect the shrines and different 
buildings, and boats can be rowed up to the very 
holy of holies. When the tide is out, stepping- 



YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA 223 

Stones enable the pilgrim to go through the courts 
in more prosaic fashion. 

Built sometime in the sixth century, the temple 
passed from Shinto to Buddhist and later to 
Shinto again, and fires and fanaticism wrought 
sad havoc. The relics are now carefully preserved 
and watched ; and many beautiful things have 
been added in later days. Far aside from the line 
of that tourist travel which has despoiled many 
another spot once full of the poetry of old Japan, 
Miyajima bids fair to revel in legendary atmo- 
sphere for long years to come, — with sacred 
deer, no less tame and half-human than the pretty 
creatures at Nara, with innocent-hearted priests, 
and the reposeful silence of leafy maple groves. 

It was just before the annual matsuri, which 
here is celebrated upon the water, with boats in- 
stead of decorated cars as elsewhere. Preparation 
for this great occasion was in active progress 
when the mystic galleries of Miyajima were vis- 
ited. When, on festival night, eight hundred 
lamps of the temple are lighted, and .masses of 
people assemble with songs and rejoicing, it is a 
resplendent scene, depending upon high tide for 
point of departure. 

In this enchanted island no one dies, and no 
one is born. Sadness and pain are ferried across 
to the Aki shore. Blissful serenity has been its 
portion for centuries. 



224 CORONA AND CORONET 

Okita, ever faithful to the proprieties, although 
personally lacking any marked religious prefer- 
ence, as he amiably announced, threw a glittering 
ten sen piece- into the shrine, just in advance 
of two somewhat aged worshipers, who, clapping 
their hands to attract the attention of the god, 
muttered some unintelligible prayer probably for 
good luck. Apparently they thought the deity 
had smiled upon them rather quickly, for depos- 
iting one rin at the sacred spot, they quietly 
removed Okita' s bright money, making by this 
transaction ninety-nine rin. As they were calmly 
departing, Okita, notified of the fraud put upon 
the gods, called after the ancient couple energeti- 
cally that they had taken consecrated money 
— whereupon returning, they smilingly threw it 
back. 

Shimonoseki is full of historic interest, from 
the time, in the third century, when the Empress 
Jingo started from Toyoura near by to conquer 
Korea, until the twelfth century and the battle of 
Dannoura ; more recently still, the bombardment 
of Maida by the allied fleets in 1863, and most 
lately of all the stirring scenes of the war with 
China. Fine forts, guarding the harbor in both 
directions, fleets of junks with sails spread, and 
the channel shut in by steep hills bristling with 
black guns, offer a sharp contrast with the sunny 
silence and peaceful enchantment of Miyajima. 



YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA 225 

The Miyako-maru approached the city, stretching 
three miles along the narrow margin of land be- 
tween sea and mountain, through a strait which 
was a scene of much activity during the Chinese 
war, transport ships, all starting there. In the 
Fujino tea-house opposite, a delicious luncheon 
was provided, beneath the large room in which 
the treaty with China was signed, April 17th, 1895. 
Li Hung Chang occupied a temple close by, and 
in the street outside he was shot while being car- 
ried in his kago from the tea-house to the temple. 
His boys ran on with him to the steps, and alight- 
ing, he remarked, as blood trickled down his face, 
that he doubted if ever before a foreign ambassa- 
dor had been assassinated while negotiating a 
treaty. Count Ito, and Count Mutsu, formerly 
minister at Washington, stayed at the Daikichi, 
an inn on the principal street, below the tea- 
house. 

At evening the voyagers asked for an upper 
room as a "moon-gazing" place, thus gaining a 
fine sight of the full moon rising over the hills 
across the strait. Shimonoseki is picturesque at 
night, with paper lanterns swinging in the breeze, 
but not overclean or fragrant. 

Clothing in these regions was scanty, — occa- 
sionally a woman was happily taking her bath in 
a tub set in the middle of a street. One's mod- 
esty seems able to survive seeing people with 



226 CORONA AND CORONET 

slight raiment, or with almost none at all, but 
when in addition, as sometimes happens, they 
shave their heads, it becomes positively shocking. 

A place even less conventional was Beppu, on 
the return voyage to Kobe. Kiushiu Island is 
famous for hot alkali baths, supposed to cure 
leprosy and other ills. Here men, women, and 
children were partaking of this benefit indiscrimi- 
nately, in the public tanks, while in a large build- 
ing sat others waiting, their clothing left neatly 
in boxes along the wall. From the deck of the 
Myako-maru people could be seen bathing on the 
beach, digging holes for themselves in the sand, 
or sitting in the warm water with umbrellas over 
their heads. 

A police officer, sent on board to make sure 
that all was right, seemed rather confused at 
sight of foreigners, and being shown the pass- 
ports was manifestly unable to determine what to 
do with them. He confessed frankly at length 
that he had never seen one before. On shore 
Americans were equally strange, and, as in all 
remote Japanese towns, troops of people, young 
and old, followed in a lively procession. 

The intention was to remain anchored off 
Beppu until midnight, that Matsuyama might be 
reached early in the morning. But at evening, 
the sailors having had leave during the day, which 
was Sunday, the Miyako-maru became the scene 



YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA 227 

of various incidents. The journals again tell the 
story : — 

" Most of the under officers and crew had been 
drinking sake on shore. Being in port, neither 
captain nor first officer seemed to have proper 
control. We attempted to keep back one of the 
men who tried to come aft without his clothes ; 
one of his friends took his part ; sampans along- 
side were selling more sake ; and as the crew 
gradually came on board, girls from the tea-houses 
escorting them, shouts and hilarity from forward 
grew apace. Lest the entertainment should wax 
riotous we decided to weigh anchor and get off at 
once, thinking it less safe to remain than to trust 
the navigation of a drunken crew. 

"Accordingly the whistle was blown and the 
siren given, but it was not until eleven o'clock 
that all were on board, and we could start. We 
took turns on the watch all night, — some on the 
bridge, others at the engine room ; while the 
Doctor slept across the entrance of the saloon as 
a guard to the ladies : a sort of ' devil protector.' 
Sunday rest was not found beneficial to the crew. 

" When we awakened at five o'clock the men 
were at work as usual, and everything apparently 
quiet. We abandoned Matsuyama, on the island 
of Shikoku, being afraid to give the crew leave 
again. Instead we went straight on to the whirl- 
pool between Shikoku and Awaji. 



228 CORONA AND CORONET 

" Anchoring off Tubi, a sampan took us to see 
the rushing current of Naruto Channel, — less a 
sight than anticipated, probably because the tide 
was setting in the wrong direction. Landing 
after a hard pull, we scrambled over boulders 
like the New England coast, and up a steep hill, 
where a fine view was met, of islands, strait, and 
far blue sea. After this an ideal cruise back to 
Kobe, where home messages again annihilated 
space and time." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES 

O, what a load 

Of care and toil, 

By lying use bestowed, 

From his shoulders falls who sees 

The true astronomy, 

The period of peace. 

Emerson, The Celestial Love, 

Ah ! well I mind the Calendar ; 
Faithful through a thousand years. 

Emerson, May-Day, 

The northern voyagers had made no sign for 
many days, except an occasional telegram as to 
progress in the novel journey. But just as I was 
starting for Esashi, and the travelers in the south 
were about to embark upon the Inland Sea, and 
the experiences related in the last chapter, a jour- 
nal arrived, in which Chief had minutely chroni- 
cled, for our edification, an account of the daily 
adventures of these scientific gentlemen. 

Beginning faithfully with their departure by 
train from Tokyo in the heat of that first day of 
July, the outline of their story follows, in the 
veracious words of their historian : — 

..." The cook was in a second-class car and 
the mechanic in a third-class car, and our grub in 



230 CORONA AND CORONET 

the baggage car. Stops were so short and our 
command of the language so limited that to get 
either the cook or the mechanic out in time to 
tell the baggage-master that we wanted to get 
out a package seemed a very serious undertaking, 
and several stations were passed without anything 
accomplished in the commissary department. 
About four o'clock a man came along with pack- 
ages of Japanese luncheon, consisting of two neat 
wooden boxes, one containing cooked rice, the 
other a variety of other food, such as daikon^ 
ginger root, a kind of omelet, seaweed, — which 
looked like fine-cut tobacco and tasted as though 
the same had been soaked in fish oil ; also a kind 
of dark brown substance of the consistency of 
jujube paste, but of quite a different flavor. We 
invested in some of this, — but there was plenty 
left. Then we all became thirsty. There was a 
small table in the middle of the car supplied with 
a pot of water, and three tumblers. We were 
afraid to drink, and here your devoted servant 
distinguished himself by volunteering to get beer. 
"At the next station he found quart bottles 
that looked as if they contained beer, and he un- 
derstood the girl to say they contained beer ; so 
he bought them and returned to the car trium- 
phantly. Upon opening the first bottle, however, 
it was not beer, but sake. We mixed some of this 
with the water and drank, but with sad counte- 



EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES 231 

nances. It naturally followed that the others 
*had fun* with Chief. 

..." Soon after this a determined attempt was 
made to get at the package of eatables. No one 
could remember the size or shape of it, so it was 
necessary to get into the baggage car and make a 
thorough search. Andrew had the checks. At 
the next station I hunted up the cook, and the 
mechanic appeared from somewhere ; by the time 
we got the baggage master to understand the sit- 
uation it was time to start again. Finally by lock- 
ing Andrew up with the baggage master from 
one station to the next we found it. 

"About this time they lugged out the little 
table containing water, and replaced it by one con- 
taining an outfit for tea. 

" We made a nice evening meal with crackers, 
potted quail, tea, and so on. 

" There was room enough in the car for us par- 
tially to stretch out for our night's rest, and sleep 
came sooner or later. I was some time getting 
into the land of dreams, and it required some 
miles to take all of me away from Yokohama har- 
bor and the Coronet. 

" The next day was cool and comfortable, and 
we arrived in good shape on time at Aomori. 
There was plenty of irksome duty here, finding 
carts and sampans to get our traps from the sta- 
tion to the steamer for crossing the strait to 



232 CORONA AND CORONET 

Hakodate. We all had to act as vanguards or 
rearguards to see that nothing was lost. 

*' On the steamer, finding that no food of any 
kind could be obtained, we decided to return to 
the town and take supper at the tea-house. We 
were able to get omelet, boiled eggs, chicken cut 
into small pieces and cooked with onions, the lat- 
ter being very good, except they had put sugar in 
it. As you were not here to give me a game of 
chess, I partook freely of everything. 

" We had a very merry time here. Everybody 
tried to speak the language, and the girls in wait- 
ing were inclined to be sociable. When Andrew 
and one of them conversed, one in Russian, the 
other in Japanese, it was very amusing. . . . We 
returned to the steamer about 9.30, sailing at ten 
for Hakodate, and arriving there at five in the 
morning. 

"At Hakodate we found our special steamer 
had not yet arrived, so we landed everything. 
Fortunately the hotel was near the pier, and there 
was not much trouble. About nine o'clock the 
steamer arrived, and Mr. Thompson came on 
shore. [He had gone with the apparatus from 
Yokohama all the way by water.] They had had 
rough weather. In the night the packages got 
adrift, and one of them struck Mr. Thompson on 
the head, making a slight wound. He is all right 
now. As pro tempore doctor of the expedition I 
examined him, and so report. ... 



EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES 233 

" Otaru, July 4th. In the afternoon I went with 
the Professor by rail to Sapporo. . . . We went 
to a large hotel on the European plan, and were 
delighted to find delicious strawberries and fine 
cherries. Before dinner we called on the governor 
of Hokkaido. . . . Sapporo, July 5th. Soon after 
breakfast the governor arrived with Mr. Nozawa, 
who has since been detailed to accompany us and 
remain a few days at our station. Everything we 
expected was accomplished. The governor will 
write to the local governor at Esashi to receive us 
and assist to the best of his ability. Soon after 
the governor left. Professor Nitobe called on Pro- 
fessor Todd. He is connected with the Imperial 
Agricultural College at Sapporo, and he married 
an American lady from Philadelphia. Professor 
Todd returned with him. Otaru, July 6th. Left 
for Otaru at 9.35 a. m. in company with Mr. No- 
zawa, above-mentioned. He is to remain with us 
a few days, and afterward make a tour of inspec- 
tion through certain portions of Hokkaido in the 
interests of fisheries and oyster beds. Also I had 
with me the student Mr. Oshima, and a police offi- 
cial, as permanent guard at Esashi. . . . We sailed 
about 2.30. The captain and officers are agree- 
able, and do everything for our comfort. It is very 
cool up in this region — too cool for comfort, in 
fact. There is much talk about the flies and mos- 
quitoes we are expected to encounter in camp. 



234 CORONA AND CORONET 

The prospect of being enveloped in a veil of net- 
ting hanging from the rim of one's hat, and hav- 
ing the face anointed with a mixture of castor oil 
and tar, is not inviting. . . . Some work is being 
done on board. A heavy wooden frame for coun- 
terbalancing the three-story instrument platforms 
is in process of construction, and parts of the pipe 
connection are being screwed together to save 
time at the station. 

" At sea, July 7th. ... A strong wind blowing 
and the sea coming up. About 8 a. m. we ran 
into a place called Wakkanai, to telegraph to Esa- 
shi as to sea and weather at that port, as there is 
no harbor at that place, and it would be impossi- 
ble to unload our traps with the present condi- 
tions. . . . We are to wait in this locality until 
there is a change of weather. I don't like it. 
Professor Todd takes it calmly, however, and we 
are doing pretty good work on board. I have 
donned my overalls and jacket and help a little. 

"July 8th. . . . The weather moderating to- 
ward night we got under way with the intention of 
feeling our way to Cape Soya, and anchoring just 
inside the cape if too rough to venture outside. 

"July 9th. Just a solid month before the 
eclipse. We did not go outside last night, the 
wind having increased somewhat ; about ten o'clock 
this morning, however, we started for Esashi. It 
was rough work rounding the Cape Horn of 



EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES 235 

Japan. . . . Esashi, July loth. This has been an 
eventful day, inasmuch as we have finally reached 
Esashi, taken possession of our camp, have every- 
thing unloaded and under cover. Professor Todd 
and Mr. Nozawa went on shore early in the morn- 
ing, met the local governor, and arranged every- 
thing at short order. . . . The town itself is not 
very large, a fishing village, one or two Japanese 
hotels, a few shops. There is a very strong odor 
of fish, but our place has it less than elsewhere. 
There are small flies about, but I have n't heard 
any complaints from members of the party, and 
neither netting, castor oil, nor tar has been men- 
tioned as yet. However, it is still cool, and the 
wind is from the sea. . . . The cook has such a 
display of hams, bacon, etc., in his quarters that it 
looks like a corner grocery. . . . The Commandant 
of the Alger and the French astronomers have 
called, also the governor of this province. 

"Saturday, July nth. The day has been con- 
sumed in getting up the piers for the main station, 
setting up tents, and opening crates that contain 
the portable house. The weather has cleared up 
nicely, and the sun was out at eclipse time this 
afternoon. . . . 

"Sunday, July 12th. Just four weeks before 
the eclipse. It is a clear day, warm in the sun, 
but cool in the shade. . . . Tell *Doc' that I 
came near having a serious case in my capacity as 



236 CORONA AND CORONET 

assistant surgeon. A day or two ago one of the 
party tumbled over a pile of tent poles, and came 
down. He did n't get up at once, and said his leg 
was out of joint at the knee. Instantly after he 
said * It 's all right, it has slipped back into place.' 
I was much bothered when it first happened, — 
I knew something should be done at once, but 
whether to have him pulled out straight or dou- 
bled up I was n't sure. As he was already doubled 
up I think the first would have been proper. 
When he said * all right ' I promptly produced the 
Pond's Extract and recommended rest. . . . 

" July 1 3th. This morning I came to the front 
again rather unexpectedly. I had started work on 
those everlasting plate-holders again, when Profes- 
sor Todd called out that my professional services 
as doctor were requested at the French camp. 
One of the sailors was ill, the Alger had gone off 
for a few days, and they had no surgeon. So I 
took my bottles and paper of instructions that 
* Doc ' provided, and went up there with Professor 
Todd, and the assistant who came down for me. 
I explained that I was not really possessed of a 
medical education, but they were welcome to the 
medicine and the directions for use. . . . While 
there they wished me also to look at a sick sheep. 
They have a number of sheep in a tent. I felt 
the sheep's pulse, but doubt if I got hold of the 
right leg. I recommended rest. . . . This after- 



EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES 237 

noon the report comes that both parties are about 
the same. I 'm thankful they 're no worse. 

"July 14th. We have two flag-poles erected, 
one for the stars and stripes, with Amherst colors, 
and the other for the Japanese flag. They are 
symmetrically placed at the ends of our inclosure. 
... I hear from Professor Todd that at a meet- 
ing of the good citizens of this place, it was voted 
that on eclipse day there should be no wood fires 
made. Either cooking will be done the day before, 
or charcoal used in place of wood. This is to 
secure a clear atmosphere. Work on the portable 
house goes slowly. Theoretically it should be put 
together in a few hours. Practically it takes a 
good while to get things to fit. ... I find myself 
feeling a little depressed to-night. The cook gave 
us some Japanese soup for supper. Perhaps it 's 
that. . . . 

"July 1 6th. The portable house is about fin- 
ished outside. The different tubes for the lenses 
are being made ready to be bolted on to the plat- 
form, and lots of small work — overhauling and 
adjusting the plate mechanisms — is going on. . . . 
We had some washing done. Of course we don't 
mind such a little thing as undershirts starched 
and trousers creased the wrong way. . . . My 
duties to-day have been verily like that of Jack-at- 
all-trades. I have taken up electrical business, 
connecting galvanic batteries. Then I play car- 



238 CORONA AND CORONET 

penter, and screw small boxes on to a wheel ; then 
I paint a lot of square pieces of wood ; and from 
that I go to cutting out rectangular pieces of 
black velvet, and gluing them on to the inside of 
the boxes. . . . As to affairs out in town — there 
seems to be a great scarcity of small change. It 
is impossible to get even a yen changed. To make 
a small purchase at the shop near here, I had to 
leave the yen and take a due-bill for the balance, 
to be traded out afterward. . . . The others still 
run me a little about mess affairs. At the table 
when anything appears they say, 'What 's this com- 
ing, Chief?' As I have n't the least idea what it 
is, I say, * A little surprise for you to-day.' When 
I do say anything to the cook there seems to be a 
misunderstanding. Seeing onions for sale in town 
I suggested that we have some occasionally. The 
very next night, as a last course, when we usually 
have canned fruit or preserves, he served up two 
stewed onions to each of us. They were very 
nice, but why didn't they come earlier in the 
meal.? ... 

" July 29th. There has been quite a little ex- 
citement in our town to-day. A few days ago the 
village officer or mayor went to Mombetsu to get 
the Emperor's portrait. It has been presented to 
the village school. A new schoolhouse is to be 
dedicated on the nth of August, and the picture 
is then to be displayed. Now it seems that when 



EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES 239 

the Emperor's portrait travels about, it must be 
treated with the same respect as himself would be. 
So this afternoon there has been a little ceremony 
connected with the landing of the portrait from 
the steamer. 

" A new sampan, having a canopy draped about 
with purple, and roofed with white bunting, was 
towed out to the steamer, by another sampan 
pulled by a large number of men. Plenty of flags 
displayed, of course, on both sampans, and also 
many flags and red and white lanterns shown 
along the streets. The portrait was inclosed in 
a square box, covered with white cloth and fur- 
nished with four legs ; and two poles were fas- 
tened to it, so it could be carried on the shoulders 
of two men. All along the route from the landing 
to the schoolhouse, little hills of sand had been 
previously placed. Just before the procession 
started, these were made into a path, so that the 
Emperor would have had new soil to walk on had 
he not been his picture. The box was carried by 
men in white kimono and black hats shaped some- 
thing like a bishop's mitre. The school children 
with their holiday clothes and unusually clean 
faces looked quite sweet. They were marched 
down to the landing and formed into two lines, 
the girls on one side, and the boys on the other. 
As the portrait passed, the entire school chanted 
slowly the Japanese national anthem. Afterward 



240 CORONA AND CORONET 

they re-formed, and followed it to the schoolhouse. 
I could not avoid the impression that they were 
going to bury it somewhere. . . . 

"July 31st. We are looking for Mrs. Todd 
daily now. . . . Professor Todd told me yesterday 
that he thought everything was going on well, 
and that all he had planned would be finished in 
time. 

"August 1st. A steamer arrived from Otaru, 
but Mrs. Todd was not on board, neither did it 
bring us letters. 

" August 2d. This would have been a good 
eclipse day. Advantage was taken of the sun's 
presence to run the glycerine clock. Professor 
Todd is very much pleased with its action. 

" August 3d. Only five more working days be- 
fore the day that must bring us the Corona or 
bitter disappointment. To-day has been fine for 
the most part. At eclipse time the sun was out 
in good shape. 

" August 5 th. Mrs. Todd arrived this morning, 
and we were all glad to see her. We are very 
busy, but hopeful. There is a chance to send let- 
ters, so I have caught a few minutes' time to close 
this last installment of my journal and send it. I 
have n't corrected the proof, so make out the best 
you can.'* 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE TIDAL WAVE 

Ruin itself stands still for lack of work, 
And Desolation keeps unbroken Sabbath. 

Left by one tide and cancelled by the next. 

James Montgomery, TJte Pelican Island. 

Yet must thou hear a voice, — Restore the dead ! 
Earth shall reclaim her precious things from thee : — 
Restore the dead, thou sea I 

Felicia Hemans, The Treasures of the Deep. 

While the expedition was thus setting up its 
apparatus, writing journals for comrades in the 
main island, and preparing for the eclipse at 
Esashi — while the Inland Sea party was still 
exploring the remote bays and straits of those 
fairy waters, and studying the native character 
under new conditions, I was hastening northward 
from one to the other. 

In looking about for a guide or interpreter to 
accompany me to the far wilds of Yezo, I had 
been fortunate in meeting a young Japanese, for- 
merly a student at the Doshisha in Kyoto, who 
speaks excellent English, and is a good French 
and German scholar as well. He particularly 
loves astronomy, has used the telescope at the 
University, and is a member of a well known 



242 CORONA AND CORONET 

German Society. As for astronomical books in 
English, he has read much ; Newcomb, Cham- 
bers, Ball, Miss Gierke, and their brotherhood — 
all are equally familiar to him. 

Modern methods of observing an eclipse he 
had longed to see, as well as the phenomenon it- 
self. Although his social position as student and 
teacher is far above that of interpreter, he was 
willing to go in that capacity, even running the 
risk of temporary caste misinterpretation, for the 
sake of seeing the astronomers and their work at 
Esashi. His father was once chief of the island 
of Shikoku in the Inland Sea, and the boy's whole 
life has been spent in arduous study. 

Difficulties in learning scholarly Japanese alone 
are very great, even to a native ; and it is said to 
require no less than seven years for a child to be- 
come sufficiently familiar with Chinese characters 
to use them easily. Besides the purely Japanese 
alphabet, invented by Kobo Daishi, it is necessary 
to know about twenty thousand characters before 
the classics can be intelligently read, even news- 
papers making use of twelve thousand. 

These must be memorized, and the eye and 
Jiand trained to distinguish and delineate the faint- 
est curve or variation in a line. With their own 
literature rich in fiction, fable or mythology, le- 
gend, and poetry, it was no wonder that all this 
and a good knowledge of other languages and lit- 



THE TIDAL WAVE 243 

eratures filtered through it, should have made 
Murakami-san's cheeks pale and thin, his physical 
vitality largely burned out by over-exercise of 
brain. But he admitted no fatigue of any kind, 
and started joyfully on the long journey to inter- 
pret as might be required. 

Very quiet and retiring, he preferred Japanese 
food on steamer and train, staying quite by him- 
self except when needed, — practically little for 
many days ; for a few Japanese words go far, most 
officials speak English in varying degrees, and 
travel is comparatively easy for unaccompanied 
foreigners. 

The floods which had set all the rice -fields 
afloat around Nara and Osaka were widely extend- 
ing, and I had finally to abandon my pleasant 
scheme of following exactly the route of the expe- 
dition, passing through the familiar city of Shira- 
kawa, whose old castle was our happy seven 
weeks' abiding place many years before. The fine 
mountain scenery farther north must also be un- 
visited, for the railroad was impassable at certain 
points, and might require several days for entire 
repair. 

So another Yusen Kaisha steamer, Tairen-maru, 
was taken for Hakodate, and possibly Otaru. 
How Esashi could be reached from there was 
misty but enticing, as I rather hoped it might be 
necessary to travel a few days by packhorse over 



244 CORONA AND CORONET 

hitherto untrodden wilds, a few Yezo bears in 
the background and the " hairy Ainu " as hosts. 
However that might be, the next immediate stage 
of the journey was clearly defined. 

All along the eastern coast of the main island, 
as the Tairen-maru kept her steady way north- 
ward, were sad reminders of the tidal wave, now 
more than a month in the past. Supplies and 
money still being sent to the survivors, we stopped 
for two or three hours at Oginohama, near the 
southern end of the afflicted region, to leave a 
variety of necessities for the suffering people. 

The town was dirty and sordid, but blossoming 
white lilies and purple hydrangea brightened it, 
and our own familiar clematis climbed all over 
shrubs and even trees on the mountain path lead- 
ing past a pathetic little burial place. Just be- 
yond was a Shinto shrine, full of gohei (sticks with 
fluttering paper prayers), a good many spirited 
drawings of a cock and hens, and a spherical bell 
with a thick red cord attached by which to ring 
attention from the presiding, but perhaps other- 
wise occupied, deity. A steep climb, accompanied 
by numerous little girls with babies on their 
backs, brought me to a larger Shinto temple with 
a mirror and rough drawings of horses. Over- 
head, tall cryptomerias shaded a spot doubtless 
charming in a sunny day, but rather too moist for 
comfort under gently falling summer rain. 



THE TIDAL WAVE 245 

Oginohama received no damage from the great 
deluge, its harbor being on the inner side of a 
long promontory. The havoc was greatest in 
small but open bays near by, where the water 
heaped itself to appalling heights. 

Japanese papers and magazines were still full 
of pathetic details of the great catastrophe, theo- 
ries for its cause and reports of assistance to the 
survivors. Inability to read the complicated char- 
acters describing all these interesting matters as 
we passed along the afflicted shore was an exas- 
perating drawback, for an extensive current litera- 
ture pertaining to this subject covered the table 
in the Tairen-maru cabin. Murakami kindly read 
the articles to me, which probably lost much of 
their graphic character in verbal translation. But 
the harrowing and realistic illustrations by native 
artists needed no interpreter. 

The day of the tragedy, 15th June, — according 
to the Old Calendar fifth day of fifth month — 
was an annual festival ; and in many villages the 
primitive seaside folk had been hilariously cele- 
brating when singular noises were heard, pre- 
ceding the melancholy interruption. Curiously 
enough, barometers gave no advance indication of 
impending disaster ; but on the morning of the 
fifteenth, an old woman noticed that the water in 
her well had almost disappeared. She is said to 
have told her neighbors that a great tidal wave 



246 CORONA AND CORONET 

was coming, though no one paid serious attention 
to her prediction. 

When the wave was actually advancing, three 
of them, in fact, running shoreward from south- 
east to northwest, the receding water is reported 
to have laid the sands bare for a distance of 
eighteen hundred feet, white and glistening grue- 
somely in the murky night. Wave length from 
the first monster to the crest of the following one 
was not less than from twelve to sixteen hundred 
feet. Ten minutes completed the entire devasta- 
tion. 

In Kamaishi the director of the telegraph office 
saw his entire family washed away before his eyes ; 
nevertheless, safe himself, he at once proceeded 
to hunt for his broken and scattered instruments 
among the debris. Owing to his faithful bravery 
and presence of mind, communication with the 
outside world was soon opened. 

The avalanche of waters swept three times into 
the town, the first most terrible. In less than 
two minutes all houses standing in the lower part 
of the town were quite swept away, and thousands 
of persons suffocated or battered to death. But 
three storehouses ("go-downs") were left stand- 
ing. Had the approach of this fatal watery moun- 
tain been anticipated for even a few minutes, 
many who perished might easily have saved them- 
selves. 



THE TIDAL WAVE isn 

The "chief officer" or head man of the town 
was conversing with three callers when they heard 
the roar of unfamiliar waters. Jumping directly 
out from the upper story he and one of his friends 
took flight for high ground and escaped, while the 
other two, waiting to go down by the stairs, were 
caught by the flood. Four steamers anchored 
near the shore were carried inland and stranded 
in fields, almost without injury. Schooners and 
junks in rice fields were a common sight all 
along the coast. One small boat was caught in 
the forked limb of a tree. The water was re- 
ported in many places as eighty feet higher than 
the highest tide ever known, while one village 
remained in complete and apparently permanent 
oblivion beneath the sea. A few persons saved 
themselves by breaking through the roofs of their 
houses and there clinging until washed ashore, 
hours or even days afterward. While those over- 
whelmed were chiefly poor fishermen who lost not 
only houses and household goods, but their small 
gardens and crops and all their nets and boats, 
many farmers also were ruined, and cultivators of 
silkworms ; the food supplies of whole provinces 
disappeared. Papers were full of incidents, hor- 
ribly tragic,, and details of saddest meaning. One 
young girl in trying to save both her grandmo- 
ther and a little child lost her own life and prob- 
ably theirs as well; when her body was found 



248 CORONA AND CORONET 

one hand was grasping remnants of her grand- 
mother's dress, while the other still held tightly 
fragments of the baby's little kimono. The pre- 
vailing and unalterable love and respect in which 
older persons are held in Japan is never more 
tenderly illustrated than in scenes like these. A 
native picture represents a man for an instant 
undecided whether he shall save parents, or wife 
and children. Characteristically seizing his aged 
mother, he is shown rushing with her in his arms 
to a place of safety, while wife and child, trying 
vainly to follow, are clutching at his dress in de- 
spair. 

In one village the force of the wave was so 
great that one hundred pine-trees over ten feet 
in circumference were entirely torn away, leaving 
only their broken roots. But in other places men 
and women washed into the tops of trees were 
safely stranded — climbing down to the ground 
when danger was past. 

More than one hundred and fifty victims were 
cast ashore upon Sankwan Island, and subse- 
quently rescued. About the same number of con- 
victs, released from jail at Okachi when the wave 
broke over the town, returned a few days after to 
the Miyagi jail of their own accord. 

Work among the dead and dying was heroically 
carried on, despite conditions of great discomfort 
and even danger to the rescuers. The victims 



THE TIDAL WAVE 249 

under rains and hot June sun became almost at 
once unrecognizable, and owing to the prevalence 
of Shinto faith among the relatives of the dead, 
cremation could not be resorted to without doing 
violence to their feelings and principles. 

Among so many tragedies the finding of a fish, 
a gold ring in its mouth still encircling a human 
finger, was mentioned simply — without comment. 
As a relief to the prevailing gloom, an account 
was given of a young woman in a hot bath when 
the wave reached her, being lifted bodily, tub and 
all, and floated to a place of safety. 

Without rice, sent by the government at once 
and in large quantities, the survivors must have 
starved. Terrible bodily injuries, too, resulted in 
loss of life, through lack of physicians and nurses 
with medicines and instruments. 

A small fleet of a hundred and sixty fishermen 
were at sea, off a village, the great waves passing 
harmlessly beneath ; and they had no knowledge 
of the horrors overtaking friends at home until 
their return late at night to the awful scene of 
death. Another party of fishermen, equally un- 
conscious, picked up, with much surprise, a float- 
ing child — then to their amazement another — 
and two or three more ; at length one of the men 
rescued his own little son; tragedy hovered in 
the air. 

Through hundreds of miles of devastation, 



250 CORONA AND CORONET 

corpses covered the beaches, and others were 
continually washed ashore. 

In Hongo the entire hamlet of one hundred and 
fifty houses was obliterated, the sole survivors a 
party of men playing go in a temple on a hill, 
and eight children, carried by the waters to an 
elevated spot and deposited. Later, others were 
found, thrown upon the opposite coast. 

A passing traveler, putting up at an inn, was 
seized by four women in the watery rush, who 
clung to him so desperately that he was powerless 
to move. Oddly enough, this proved the salva- 
tion of them all, — the combined mass defied the 
power of water, and ultimately found itself on dry 
land. The survivors, hurt, dazed, half -wild, wan- 
dered up and down for days in tattered garments, 
like demented ghosts. 

Professor Kochibe's theory of the cause of the 
calamity is probably the most scholarly of all. 
For some distance out from the coast the water is 
shallow, but it suddenly drops to a great depth. 
The cavity is called Tuscarora Hollow, and is no 
less than four thousand fathoms deep. The prob- 
ability is that a large piece of this wall, or great 
cliff, fell off, detached by a submarine earth- 
quake, thus causing the huge rollers. Two deep- 
sea cowries found ordinarily at depths of several 
hundred fathoms were discovered after the catas- 
trophe far up on the shore, at the edge of the 
wave-line, one of them but just dead. 



THE TIDAL WAVE 251 

The first recorded damage by an earthquake 
wave is that of May, a. d. 869. On the title- 
page of a Japanese almanac in the 9th year 
Kenkin (1168 a. d.) is a representation of an 
earthquake insect, on its back a map of Japan, 
an oblong body covered with scales, ten feet like 
a spider, and a dragon's head. 

After leaving Oginohama the Tairen - maru 
passed a gruesome relic, — a corpse floating by, 
bleached beyond possible recognition, but unmis- 
takably once a living person. Later in the day 
two or three others floated by. 

As we passed the lovely coast scenery, finally 
reaching Shiriya Light, and Tsugaru Strait, sepa- 
rating the main island from Yezo, it was unspeak- 
able relief to depart from a region so haunting in 
its calamity. 

The steamer carried many Japanese passengers, 
one of them an officer high in the Imperial Navy, 
members of the Board of Education, the editor of 
a popular magazine, and several dainty little ladies 
who kept mostly to their staterooms. The naval 
officer, especially interested in oceanic meteorol- 
ogy, was the only Japanese who cared to come to 
the European table. He and I with the genial 
Scotch captain of the steamer were often the sole 
diners, — a slight roughness reducing the number 
at once to these three. Captain Kimotsuki spoke 
little English, but seemed much impressed that a 



252 CORONA AND CORONET 

lady could be a good sailor, even that she could 
think of traveling to Esashi at all. He was him- 
self bound thither to witness the eclipse ; but 
most of the other passengers would stop at Hako- 
date or Otaru. 

Much interesting talk — and the Japanese are 
often great talkers — went on in the cabin be- 
tween the various scientific and literary gentle- 
men, upon matters of current importance, and it 
was most trying to get only now and then a sug- 
gestion of its drift from an occasional familiar 
word. 

I asked Murakami to give me a few lessons in 
reading printed characters. In a day or two, dates 
on Japanese newspapers became intelligible ; but 
while philosophical and intensely absorbing, it is a 
discouraging accomplishment. A lifetime might 
be spent in its acquirement. 

Read from right to left, the first two characters 
stand for Mei-ji, the present era of Japan, which 
began with the Revolution of 1868. 

HA + jg A #- % -f r S^ li 

(August 18, 1896) 

Tsugaru Strait was passed, the Yezo shores 
loomed in sight ; Hakodate Head rose majesti- 
cally above the sea, its base washed by a snow- 
white fringe of surf, its mighty cliffs green from 
sea to sky, plunging their heads into the softly 



THE TIDAL WAVE 253 

drifting clouds over twelve hundred feet above. 
Hakodate seemed to have wide and fairly clean 
streets, the houses built evidently with reference 
to more severe winters than prevail in the main 
island. Stones, nowhere used for paving, were 
chiefly lying on the roofs. A pagoda, a few bar- 
ren foreign buildings, and the graceful lines of a 
temple roof broke the general monotony. 

In the light of a fair northern sunset the Tairen- 
maru cast anchor, and was surrounded at once by 
the usual fleet of sampans ; and with colors dip- 
ping to her from numerous Japanese steamers 
lying near, she proceeded to settle herself for a 
twenty-four hours' stay in the beautiful harbor. 



CHAPTER XXV 

IN PURSUIT OF A SHADOW 

What shadows we are and what shadows we pursue. 

Burke. 

Who could watch that superb Hakodate Head 
lying close by and not desire to see the wide- 
spread view from its summit ! Early dawn found 
me well up its side. 

The path might have been along some New 
England hillside. Red and white clover grew 
luxuriantly, humble heal-all and wild geraniums, 
spiraea and serpentaria, and hydrangeas, blue 
and white. Maidenhair ferns and royal osmunda 
flourished side by side with yellow lilies, dear 
old cinnamon pinks of traditional grandmothers* 
gardens, and fair purple iris. Young oaks shaded 
bluebells, homely yarrow sent forth its pungent 
odor, and wild sunflowers gleamed at every turn 
in the path. A large bush, full of splendid scar- 
let berries, was an unfamiliar member of the 
elder family. 

On a mountain spur the view emerged from 
shifting fog in sunny brightness ; just below us 
two reservoirs, farther away the bay, with a long, 
narrow beach separating it from the ocean, scores 



IN PURSUIT OF A SHADOW 255 

of vessels at anchor, and the gray town climbing 
a short distance up the hillside. Surf was beat- 
ing high on the sea side, fog drifting off to south 
and east, glints of sunlight turning the water 
here and there to silver. Tall cryptomerias, 
huge ledges, a fine park and museum, a farm- 
house where a pretty Japanese girl dispensed 
that rare luxury, rich milk — are all blended in 
one memory of Hakodate. 

But not an Ainu had appeared. 

The Tairen-maru, bound for Otaru on the west 
coast of Yezo, finally steamed off, past Shira- 
kamisaki Point, and another stage of the journey 
was begun. 

At Otaru (sandy road) women carry the bur- 
dens, and mushroom hats prevail. It is the port 
of Sapporo, whence a short line of railroad leads to 
the site of the Imperial Agricultural College. An 
attempt to reach the province of Kitami over- 
land from here would have been seriously diffi- 
cult if not practically impossible, the island con- 
sisting of roadless mountains, unexplored forests, 
and bridgeless rivers. Interesting as such an 
unusual trip might have proved, the time would 
hardly admit dallying with the unknown after 
such a fashion, and my first anxiety in Otaru 
was to inquire whether a Yusen Kaisha steamer 
might not be ready to make the infrequent trip 
along the northwest coast, around Cape Soya, 



zs6 CORONA AND CORONET 

and to villages along the northeast shore of 
Yezo. First information was disheartening — a 
steamer had some time before started for this 
remote region and the one now in port was in- 
tended for another direction. But it was found 
that a little steamer belonging to a local native 
line was liable to start for the north in a few 
days, if storm or rain or fog or high seas did not 
prevent. 

And this seemed the only practical way to 
reach Esashi in season. 

While this somewhat uncertain prospect was 
probably producing a thoughtful cast of counte- 
nance, as I revolved the possibilities of being 
late for the eclipse, a swift messenger arrived 
from the Yusen Kaisha office, — bringing the 
compliments of the manager, and the intelli- 
gence that he had received word from the head 
office in Yokohama to detail for me a special 
steamer for that far northern voyage. It would 
sail within two days, passes would be sent, and 
European food provided on board. Meantime 
Sapporo could be visited, and perhaps some Ainu 
seen ; so my prospect immediately began to 
lighten. 

Can it really be that Japan is seen from the 
windows of the train bound for Sapporo t To be 
sure the cliffs and hills on one side and the sea 
on the other were beautiful, fishermen's gardens 



IN PURSUIT OF A SHADOW 257 

held brilliant hollyhocks, and portulaca carpeted 
the ground. Marshes had cat -tails, and the 
green hills trailing mist over them. A rice- 
field or two disputed the landscape with Ameri- 
canized fields where haying was in progress. 
Solemn crows perched upon gables ; fiagpoles 
and dead trees all had their brooding black oc- 
cupants. Yellow toadflax lined the track, and 
evening primroses, large and golden, droopingly 
awaited sunset. 

But Japan — where had that poetic country 
gone } Perhaps only itself under warmer skies, 
brisk northern breezes may blow away its most 
elusive charm. At all events, Sapporo seemed 
the most American city of the Empire — as in- 
deed it well might, since the Imperial Agricultu- 
ral College was established in 1876, under the 
direction, as organizer and president, of the late 
Colonel Clark of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. The model farm with its buildings, and 
the whole atmosphere of the place are American, 
not Japanese, with an effect practical rather than 
picturesque. 

Buildings erected in Japan under the title 
"foreign" are apt to be bare and barrack-like 
structures, quite lacking the architectural grace 
which our older towns show, yet having lost the 
attractiveness of Japanese houses. Many such 
are in Sapporo. 



258 CORONA AND CORONET 

Jinrikisha are few, and horses prevail an the 
wide unpaved streets, bordered by low buildings 
and small streams of running water. 

Built for the Imperial Household in foreign 
style, but under Japanese management, the Ho- 
hei-kwan is a large hotel facing a typical garden 
most ** restful" to the eyes. The cook is an 
artist, the attendants delightful. Here I found 
myself already famous from connection with the 
expedition. 

In the usual native inns pretty maids conduct 
male guests to the bath, a custom as old as the 
Odyssey; male servants taking charge of the 
ablutions of ladies. The same custom prevailed 
at the Hohei-kwan, an amiable old man escort- 
ing me to the bathing apartment with much 
simplicity ; he saw that the tub or tank was filled 
with actually boiling water, showed all the ar- 
rangements for comfort and convenience, and 
only stopped short of offering to take my kimono 
while I stepped in. That experience was re- 
served for the Etchuya Inn at Otaru. 

Professor Nitobe and Professor Miyabe of the 
College, both of whom were educated in Amer- 
ica, called at once, and through their kindness 
many interesting places were intelligently seen, 
among them the Museum, full of Yezo material, 
and — as everywhere throughout the Empire — ■ 
triumphant mementos of the Chinese war. 



IN PURSUIT OF A SHADOW 259 

The mysterious Ainu nation is exciting much 
attention in Japanese ethnological circles, and 
utensils, ornaments, and clothing are now being 
properly collected, preserved, and classified. 

I, too, began to gather similar articles for 
Professor Morse of Salem, who had asked me to 
collect them for the Peabody Museum. He had 
hoped that I might obtain a primitive loom, bows 
and arrows, elm-fibre garments, musical instru- 
ments, and other Ainu articles. 

Through Professor Nitobe's skill and courtesy 
I was enabled to purchase a number of rare 
relics, which induced great elevation of spirits, 
since Professor Morse had mentioned casually 
when asking me to collect Ainu material, that 
they especially dislike parting with their posses- 
sions, and some articles would be almost impos- 
sible to obtain. Here, however, I already had 
the nucleus of a fair collection, although I relied 
chiefly for the best additions upon the Kitami 
Ainu, where a foreigner would be a novelty. 

Professor Miyabe, one of Japan's finest bota- 
nists, cleared up my doubts upon various shrubs 
and flowers, puzzling in their differences from 
and resemblances to American species ; and al- 
together the time in Sapporo was far too short. 

An event in one's lifetime is the first sight of 
an Ainu. A " civilized " specimen soon crossed 
my path, the most extraordinary figure in my ex- 



26o CORONA AND CORONET 

perience. With his wild head of electrified black 
hair parted in the middle and standing out under 
a round-crowned and very dingy Derby, huge 
hoops of brass or German silver in his ears, his 
face largely hidden by an enormous beard and 
mustache, a white cotton kimono and cowhide 
boots, this anomalous relic of a vanishing nation 
was infinitely more pathetic than his veriest sav- 
age kinsman. His son, evidently a cross between 
Ainu and Japanese, — a peculiarly barbarous 
combination, — wore regular schoolboy *'gear." 
Speaking in pure Ainu to his son, who answered 
in a sort of mixed dialect, the father was a mel- 
ancholy and out-of-place specimen. 

Sad it is to see a whole race disappear, — over- 
powered peacefully and half-unconsciously by a 
stronger nation of brighter intellect ; but this is 
inevitable in the world's progress. 

Bearskins in Sapporo were tempting, thick 
brown and golden yellow ; but the hunters have 
to go farther for them now than a few years ago 
— more deeply into the northern forest. 

In Sapporo, too, it was that I had a sudden 
awakening as to using my native tongue. As 
a little shop was passed, at whose open sides 
hung pretty Japanese brushes of many dainty 
kinds, I remembered my hearths and open fire- 
places in remote Massachusetts, and exclaiming : 
*' Oh, those brushes are dear ! I must have 



IN PURSUIT OF A SHADOW 261 

one or two," approached the smiling and bowing 
shopman. 

" Oh, no," said Murakami, gravely following, 
" You will not find them dear. They are very 
inexpensive ! " — which was indeed the case. 
But the unintentional lesson was no less pun- 
gent. 

A delightful Philadelphia gentleman of the old 
school, and his daughter, were at the Ho-hei- 
kwan for the summer, having lived for several 
winters in Tokyo. An invitation to their table, 
with many other kindnesses, made the hours 
homelike and gracious. 

On the train returning to Otaru, Murakami- 
san gave another mild shock to his companion, 
with his superior use of English, at all times a 
model. Wishing to test my own impressions of 
the reason, I asked him why all the carefully 
built fences at the stations were invariably 
burned — pickets, posts, all charred some dis- 
tance up from the ground. His reply was char- 
acteristic : — 

"Carbon is not soluble in water," he said 
quietly, without farther explanation. But it was 
sufficient. 

The Etchuya Inn is a fascinating little hostelry, 
its maids dainty, its native food of the best, its 
attendants more than attentive, its " head stew- 
ard" unremitting in politeness. To be sure its 



262 CORONA AND CORONET 

bath-water was red-hot, — actually bubbling ; the 
screens surrounding the tank had a row of glass 
panes in the middle, and screens have no locks. 
But its hand basins were of artistic, shining 
brass with decorative characters in the bottom, 
its tiny brass mouth bowls unique ; and a long, 
polished corridor where water was superficially 
used by all the guests in common, opened to a 
green and blossoming garden court. 

Chasing an eclipse, and then chasing an eclipse 
expedition, I deemed it appropriate to travel in 
a distinctly native way ; so everything not abso- 
lutely necessary had been left on the Coronet, 
and my few belongings were packed in the pretty 
baskets, or kori. I had added, also, on the way, 
one or two white trunks of native manufacture ; 
and from the Etchuya Inn, while seated of 
course on the floor, my letters were written upon 
long strips of Japanese paper with a camel's-hair 
brush and native ink. One epistle to America 
measured two yards and a half. 

Meals, too, were served by smiling maids 
upon their knees, the fire-pot constantly replen- 
ished with glowing coals of charcoal, o cha (hot 
tea) always ready, and at night with the floor for 
bed, beneath Japanese green mosquito netting, 
I slept the sleep of Nippon, occasionally partly 
aroused by the pattering feet of mice or " twenty 
days' rats," as the Japanese call them. Lessons, 



IN PURSUIT OF A SHADOW 263 

too, were given me in correct trying of the obi, 
and old treasures of lacquer shown, among them 
the toilet set of a court lady of generations ago. 
All the men and maids gathered with the 
chief steward at the entrance, giving farewell 
bows and fans, as we departed for the Kwanko- 
maru. Murakami was silent, but apparently 
happy. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

STILL PURSUING 

Shadow owes its birth to light. 

Gay. 

When at creation a certain god and goddess 
were selected to evolve the island of Yezo from 
chaos, they were endowed equally with materials 
and ability to complete the task. 

To the god were allotted the eastern and south- 
ern parts of the island, while the goddess was 
to attend to the western portion. They began 
together, vying amiably during the progress of 
their work. But alas, after the manner of women, 
the goddess one day met a female friend and 
stopped to chat with her. This friend, sister of 
Aioina Kamui (one of the most ancient forefa- 
thers, indeed the Adam of the Ainu race), must 
have been a seductive conversationist, for the two 
talked long and idly about acquaintances and 
neighbors, while the god at the east kept steadily 
at work, ever the custom of men. Looking up 
suddenly and seeing how nearly completed his 
portion was, and frightened at the state of her 
own unfinished regions, the goddess hastily threw 



STILL PURSUING 265 

together her remaining materials in a careless and 
slovenly manner, leaving this western coast in its 
present rugged and dangerous condition. But, 
add the Ainu in telling this legend, no one, even 
if disposed to grumble at the dangers of these 
shores, should presume to blame the Creator for 
such a state of things, as it is wholly the fault of 
his deputy and her tendency to gossip ; and their 
lords often point the moral at women who talk 
too much, — " Set a watch over your lips and 
attend to your duties, for see how rough the west 
coast of Yezo is, and that all because of a chat- 
tering goddess." 

The chattering, nevertheless, may be held re- 
sponsible for a picturesque bit of work. Steep 
cliffs, often richly wooded with ancient trees, 
sometimes rise in bare and rocky impressiveness 
many hundred feet above the sea. Innumerable 
streams rush in white torrents down these ma- 
jestic heights, using every ravine for their swift 
descent until the whole face of the coast appears 
laced with flying spray of continual cascades. 
Tiny fishing villages find precarious foothold at 
the base of cliffs entirely inaccessible, on beaches 
almost too narrow for the single row of thatched 
dwellings, even huddled against the steep rock 
behind ; while constant surf, beating white and 
high before them, seems to make a village high- 
way by the sea equally improbable. 



266 CORONA AND CORONET 

Leaving Otaru seemed also leaving all fog and 
cloud. The Sea of Japan stretched clear and gray 
to the horizon, where a narrow strip of greenish- 
blue sky showed beneath horizontal lines of cloud. 
Fleets of fishing-boats lay in the offing, and to- 
ward the north hopeful sunshine, with an autum- 
nal suggestion in its quiet beauty. 

At Mashika a landing was made in late after- 
noon. Only a fishing village, it had lately grown 
to over five hundred houses and nearly three 
thousand inhabitants, such promise of financial 
prosperity follows in the herring's train. Ma- 
shika's "fire tower" was quite imposing, — a tall 
ladder rising high above the roofs, with a bell at 
the top, suggesting observation and alarm. 

An official of the Yusen Kaisha came on board 
with a polite invitation to visit the town; and 
after a call at his house, with its beautiful in- 
closed garden where he made scientific tea, an 
opportunity was afforded for seeing a compara- 
tively new Japanese colony. No foreign woman 
had ever been in the town before, and a tour of 
investigation about the streets and to the tem- 
ple aroused an almost startling degree of interest 
in the younger inhabitants. The procession be- 
came more imposing in numbers at every corner. 
Hoping to escape from our following, we decided 
to visit an Ainu house, and, turning quietly off 
the main thoroughfare, as twilight was coming 



STILL PURSUING 267 

on, passed a rushing stream and took a footpath 
through deep bushes to the dwelHng. But not 
so easily were the young people deprived of their 
foreign amusement, and every individual followed. 
Jumping the stream with alacrity, chasing single 
file through the narrow pathway, and actually 
arriving before us, they made a dense circle 
around ; while the old Ainu, gray-haired and ven- 
erable, came out politely to speak to his singular 
guest. I counted sixty in the group, not includ- 
ing stragglers on the outskirts. An old woman 
was washing a big dish in the stream, — a piece 
of cleanliness learned with difficulty from the 
Japanese, since Ainu, away from civilized neigh- 
bors, wash neither themselves nor their clothes, 
nor utensils. 

The old man spoke fairly good Japanese, and 
his story was a sad one, — told to his unusual and 
unexpected callers with a modest dignity. His 
father, so the tale ran, once lived in a very fine 
house, almost a palace to an Ainu, but it was 
burned, and his own as well, with all his treasures, 
so that now he was forced to live in the poor one 
where we found him. His oldest son had broken 
his leg, and all the father's money went to the 
Japanese hospital, while now his own eyesight 
was nearly gone — truly a pitiable plight for an 
old, white-haired Ainu. 

When sunset had faded, and the landing or 



268 CORONA AND CORONET 

hatoba was reached, — so near nightfall that the 
body-guard had considerably diminished, — this 
old Ainu was found waiting by the boat. Bov|Jng 
low, he expressed in very good Japanese his sense 
of the honor done him by our call, and his grati- 
tude and appreciation that so much trouble should 
have been taken by one coming from so far. 

The men of the Ainu race are much better in 
appearance than the women, immense heads of 
bushy hair parted in the middle, and great beards 
imparting an impressiveness far from unpleasant. 
The women appear stolid and indifferent. 

Our sampan lay in the surf, and a single plank, 
dancing up and down on the waves, connected 
it with the shore. A few lanterns gleamed here 
and there as coolies ran about, and bidding the 
old Ainu sayonara, the sampan pushed off on 
the dark water to the brightly lighted Kwanko- 
maru lying at anchor outside. 

A most beautiful feature of the voyage to Soya, 
northwestern cape of the island, is the all-day 
view of Rishiri, a small island to the west, con- 
sisting of a single mountain. Somewhat over 
five thousand feet in height, its figure resembles 
Fuji, though the cone is not quite so regular nor 
the summit so sharply truncate. Ravines full of 
snow extended downward from the top, across 
which a filmy white cloud occasionally trailed 
itself slowly. 




A TYPICAL AINU 



STILL PURSUING 269 

Primitive fishing villages lay along the shore, 
with many new houses of wood showing as yet no 
weather stain. Only lately have Japanese begun 
to colonize these far-away possessions of the 
Emperor. But they must have been excellent 
housewives at Onivake, for on numberless roofs 
Idij fziton (Japanese bedding) exposed to the fresh 
morning sunlight. An occasional temple showed 
its fine roof lines ; multitudes of bright flags, 
each announcing the name or occupation of the 
dweller below, lent gayety to this little town, lying 
against a dark background of cedar and spruce 
forest. The industry, other than omnipresent 
fishing, is collecting edible seaweed, which is 
dried and sent all over Japan, even to China. 

At Oshidomari, while the steamer officials 
transacted necessary business on shore, we lay at 
the foot of a high green cliff crowned by a white 
light-house. 

Nine miles north of Rishiri is a still smaller 
island, Reibunshiri, and more villages. Washed 
by three remote northern waters, — the Sea of 
Japan, the Gulf of Tartary, and La Perouse Strait 
opening into the sea of Okhotsk, — the climate 
in winter is intensely cold, and the sea so rough 
that no steamers attempt an approach. Even in 
spring landing is prevented by thickly-spread fish- 
ing nets all over the bays, often far into the road- 
stead. One little town, Kabuka, is so exposed 



270 CORONA AND CORONET 

that even on the quiet day when the Kwanko- 
maru came near, so tumultuous was the surf that 
a large sampan heaped high with shining sea- 
weed, collected for hours in favorable localities and 
now being brought to land, was overturned some 
distance out and all its yards of kelp treasures 
scattered once more into their native element. 
Instantly a dozen men leaped into the surf and 
rescued most of it. 

A big boat sent out to us from the steamer 
agency was propelled by eight men in various 
stages of queer clothes and mahogany skin ; one 
man elaborately arrayed in three separate short 
kimono, but with brown extremities exposed to 
chill wind and sea. After the manner of coolies, 
they sang at their labor, and I have written the 
notes of Kabuka's refrain. But voices are sel- 
dom in exact unison, and an untranscribable vocal 
quality makes it impossible to convey a real idea 
of these constantly reiterated strains : — 

Moderato. 



$ 



'i i sv 1 ^ n-^^^ 



Japanese melodies are not easily reproduced 
with European instruments or voices or notation. 
While these are generally minor, I observed that 
Ainu at their work sang with entirely different 
musical characteristics; in major keys and with 



STILL PURSUING 271 

excellent rhythm, their airs were melodious to 
foreign ears. 

In these cold regions Japanese seem hardly 
like themselves. Palms and bamboo belong to 
the national expression. But a scarlet sun was 
setting in a gray sea as we entered La Perouse 
Strait ; and far in the north loomed low the 
shores of SaghaHen, now a Russian penal island 
settlement, but formerly owned by Japan. Wak- 
kanai, just below Cape Soya, was now our next 
anchorage, and by sunrise — Esashi. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

ESASHI IN KITAMI 

I traveled among unknown men 
In lands beyond the sea — 

Wordsworth, England. 

Child of the Sun ! to thee 't is given 
To guard the banner of the free. 

Drake, The American Flag. 

Bears, barbarous Ainu, the Imperial Agricul- 
tural College at Sapporo, and the fine harbor of 
Hakodate, where men-of-war of various national- 
ities are apt to take refuge from the summer 
heats of Yokohama, — these are all that average 
travelers in the Mikado's Empire connect with 
the great northern island, Yezo. 

Containing nearly thirty-seven thousand square 
miles, practically all forest, the number of its 
trees is estimated at one hundred and twenty- 
nine milHon, — evergreens in abundance, and 
oaks, elms, walnuts, birches, maples, and other 
familiar northern species, the handsome ash, and 
a tangle of interlacing vines. 

In 1877, ^r- Benjamin Smith Lyman made 
the first attempt at a geological survey of the 
island, and many interesting facts were brought 



E SASH I IN KITAMJ 273 

to light. There are several volcanoes and sul- 
phur niines, also there is much coal ; but speak- 
ing broadly, the Hokkaido is an unknown region, 
— one of the few places yet remaining where 
primitive nature and human nature may still be 
found, as rude aborigines pursue their unmo- 
lested way, and where many hundred miles of 
trackless forest yet await the first step of outer 
civilization. Nothing less, certainly, than an 
eclipse could have attracted to its remote wilder- 
ness at once scientific men from England and 
France and America, or even from the classic 
shades of the Imperial University at Tokyo. 

In the brilliant morning sunshine the Kwanko- 
maru pursued her tour of investigation along 
Yezo's northern coast in search of Esashi. The 
handsome young Japanese who commanded the 
steamer had never been there before, and the 
sombre evergreens, silent mountains, and gray- 
roofed villages on the shore afforded no distinc- 
tive landmark. 

I stood on deck with Captain Kimotsuki look- 
ing at the monotonous stretch of country through 
a field glass, when suddenly my heart began to 
beat with singular rapidity, quick tears sprang, 
while for a moment a certain huskiness of voice 
prevented my telling him, and Murakami - san, 
calmly gazing shoreward, that I had just made 
out the stars and stripes, fluttering for the first 



274 CORONA AND CORONET 

time in breezes blowing straight across to Yezo 
from Saghalien, over the lashing waves of the 
Sea of Okhotsk. It does not always take war 
for patriotism to grow with great and unantici- 
pated strides. 

If farther confirmation of the proximity of 
Esashi were needed there it was off the port bow, 
and about two miles away, — the huge black 
cruiser L' Alger, which had brought Professor 
Deslandres from Yokohama, now awaiting the 
completion of his eclipse observations to return 
him in safety to that port. 

Hardly less homelike than the American sym- 
bol was the familiar French flag with its three 
starless stripes ; the long journey from Inland 
Sea to Okhotsk Sea was happily accomplished, — 
the welcome might fairly be described as enthu- 
siastic. 

Esashi air, evidently out of the region of heavy 
fog, was far clearer than in southern Hokkaido, 
and every prospect was cheerful, since even the 
prevailing earthquakes almost omit western and 
northern Yezo in their constant visits to the Em- 
pire otherwhere. 

From July loth until August 5th there were ten 
perfectly clear afternoons and four only partially 
shaded. The Hokkaido, in its northern por- 
tions, offers a better chance for cloudless skies 
than the main island, but along its southern 



ESASHI IN KIT A MI 275 

coast fogs prevail almost constantly. Reference 
has been made before to the excellent pamphlet 
issued by the Central Meteorological Observa- 
tory, giving the observations at this season for 
three years past at all available eclipse locations. 
From a careful summing up of all results, Esa- 
shi was selected, not only by our own and the 
French mission, but by that sent out from the 
University at Tokyo. The Lick Observatory 
party and the English expedition chose Akke- 
shi, on the southeastern coast, as their location. 
There were thus five fully equipped expeditions 
in the Hokkaido, awaiting the moon's shadow to 
reveal truths and glories hitherto unknown. 

Friendliness at headquarters had brought tel- 
egrams from the Central Government to the 
governor of Hokkaido, and from him to the local 
authorities, placing practically the entire re- 
sources of the region at our disposal, — guards 
and interpreters, a telegraph operator who under- 
stood English, a recently vacated schoolhouse as 
headquarters, a tract of land adjoining for our 
instruments and portable house, and every intel- 
ligent Japanese resident as willing assistant so 
far as possible. 

The mayor's wife, a tiny lady with blackened 
teeth, sent vases and flowers to decorate the 
dining-room ; the editor of a Sapporo paper (in 
Esashi to report the eclipse) brought gifts of 



276 CORONA AND CORONET 

petrified shells and geological curiosities — all 
did something. Occasionally there was a me- 
chanical drawback — as when the Astronomer 
negotiated for some urgent iron work, and finally 
received the smith's compliments, with further 
information that he could probably complete one 
hinge and a half each day. 

Professor Terao, in charge of the Tokyo mis- 
sion, the official party of the Japanese govern- 
ment, established his camp about half a mile south 
of the little town and back a short distance from 
the beach. He was well prepared to accomplish 
excellent photographic work, among his instru- 
ments being an especially fine photographic 
doublet of eight inches aperture, by the well- 
known optician Brashear of Allegheny. It was 
constructed for this eclipse, and arrived only a 
few days before, having been delayed by diffi- 
culty in obtaining from Germany the finest 
quality of new glass needed for the lenses. 

The French party was established near the 
western end of the town, in a large open square 
of land, where various tents and houses, brick 
piers and large instruments, made almost a little 
village in themselves. The outfit was very elab- 
orate, and was intended quite exclusively for 
work in spectroscopy, the specialty of this cele- 
brated astronomical physicist, who has added to 
the fame of the already famous Paris Observa- 



ESASHI IN KIT AM I 277 

tory by his successful and brilliant work in phy- 
sical research in photographing the solar promi- 
nences without an eclipse and by his discovery 
already mentioned of the rotation of the corona 
with the sun at the Senegal eclipse of April i6th, 
1893. Assisting Professor Deslandres were not 
only the gentlemen before named as having 
come with him from Paris, but very valuable 
cooperation was given by officers of L' Alger, — 
Captain Boutet, commanding. Captain Le Bouleur 
de Courlon (who had charge of the six-inch tele- 
scope, and also of observing the four contacts), 
Captain Hurbin and Midshipman Dumas, in 
charge of the photometers and thermo-electric 
instruments. These gentlemen were assisted by 
a detachment of sailors from the Alger, and their 
presence quite revolutionized life in the quiet 
little town. The outfit of M. Deslandres was 
probably the most elaborate and complete bat- 
tery of spectroscopic instruments ever brought 
to bear on an eclipse by any single expedition. 
Also appliances were not omitted for pictorial 
photography of the corona. 

Preparations of the Amherst expedition have 
already been alluded to, with automatic arrange- 
ments whereby electricity is made to do the 
work of many observers, thus extending many 
fold the precious two or three minutes of totality, 
rich with tantalizing stores of coronal wealth. 



278 CORONA AND CORONET 

Fastened upon one great central axis, made to 
follow the sun by the glycerine clock, were the 
Lyman twelve-inch reflector from the Amherst 
Observatory, the Draper fifteen-inch reflector 
from Harvard, an Edgecomb eight-and-one-half- 
inch reflector, numerous object glasses by Alvan 
Clark & Sons, the largest of which were a ten- 
inch lens lent by Harvard and one of seven and 
a quarter by Amherst, a six-inch objective made 
by Schroeder of Hamburg, and a great variety of 
photographic doublets by the Gundlach Optical 
Company, and Bausch and Lomb of Rochester ; 
and a fine lens by Goerz of Berlin. In addi- 
tion were polariscopes arranged and lent by Dr. 
Wright of the Sloane Laboratory of Yale Uni- 
versity, two spectroscopes from Harvard Obser- 
vatory and the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, and a wheel photometer for measuring 
variations of intensity in the total light of the 
corona. 

All this apparatus was individually connected 
with the electric commutator (invented by Pro- 
fessor Todd and made by Mr. Thompson for this 
eclipse), a slowly revolving copper cylinder full of 
pins each of which represented a certain move- 
ment of one particular instrument at a given 
fraction of a second. Each pin in the barrel 
had an engraved number adjacent, indicating the 
precise second of totality when it passed beneath 




THE ELECTRIC COMMUTATOR 



ESASHI IN KIT AMI 279 

the circuit comb ; and as ninety thousand posi- 
tions of pins are possible, obviously a catalogue 
of each motion, the time it takes place, and the 
instrument to which it belongs, became a neces- 
sity. 

This the Astronomer had made at sea on the 
way to Japan, with details of execution com- 
pletely worked out, so that the whole apparatus, 
with an almost human intelligence, might exe- 
cute its programme flawlessly. 

The whole thing, most complicated to invent 
in all its practical working, but absolutely simple 
in manipulation, was set up and adjusted in time, 
and its working was perfect ; at a touch of the 
electric key, plates came into place, were ex- 
posed, covered, and passed out, and new ones 
brought up for exposure, — all with the preci- 
sion of a machine. Thus was demonstrated the 
practicability of applying an unlimited amount 
of apparatus, automatically, to the various and 
fertile problems of eclipse research. It is pos- 
sible, with the arrangement now perfected, to 
take between four and five hundred pictures of 
the corona in two minutes and a half ; and that 
without having to depend upon fluctuations in 
the nervous systems of a crowd of observers, 
many of whom (it is to be hoped in justice to 
their sense of the sublime in nature) might fre- 
quently be so aifected by the spectacular part 



28o CORONA AND CORONET 

of an eclipse that routine work would suffer. 
Tests were constantly made, and everything 
progressed rapidly. 

A more nearly ideal headquarters than the 
old schoolhouse could hardly be imagined for a 
practical astronomer. The long main room was 
made a sort of workshop for the completion and 
putting together of apparatus. Down one step 
another larger space was turned by screens and 
hangings into a series of small sleeping apart- 
ments for the various members of the expedi- 
tion ; while dining-room, kitchen, apartment for 
cook and assistants, a large office for the Pro- 
fessor in one corner of which our sleeping 
arrangements were shut off by a tall folding 
screen, — all were under the same generous roof. 
It was luxurious camping out. True, when Pro- 
fessor Deslandres or Commander Boutet called 
they had sometimes to be received in the dining- 
room, their refined faces projected against a 
background of shadows where hams and bacon 
hung dimly from rafters in the commissary de- 
partment ; but that was only a part of the general 
unusualness of the experience. 

Directly opposite were telegraph and post- 
offices, — the former swift and reliable, the latter 
sure, but dependent upon packhorses to and 
from Wakkanai, or visits of occasional steamers. 

Outside a long sliding window of the old 



ESASHI IN KITAMI 281 

schoolhouse, with its protecting bars of wood, an 
interested circle gathered as soon as the new 
arrival had seated herself beside it, at the Pro- 
fessor's study table. Children and young girls, 
mothers with babies on their backs, even bent 
old grandmothers, collected to glimpse this 
strange sight. But no child was too small or of 
too low a class to drop a tiny curtsey when it 
came, with an amiable ohayo (good morning), and 
when harmless curiosity was gratified the same 
little figure made another quaint bow politely 
bidding adieu in familiar sayonara. When the 
gaze of every looker-on was accompanied with 
such well-bred manners, who could complain at 
being a centre of attraction ? 

Across the street at one of the little houses 
fish could be bought at certain early morning 
hours. Family life went on innocently in full 
view, and very amusing were the ante-breakfast 
attempts of French sailors to purchase, by a 
curious jargon of French and Japanese, with 
even an English word now and then. 

But when prices or lack of mutual understand- 
ing roused their ire the resultant linguistic babel 
became too laughable. 

One might have seen much of the village life 
from that sliding window alone. Women did 
their washing in the street, entertaining one 
another meanwhile by continual conversation. 



282 CORONA AND CORONET 

Diagonally opposite was an artistic lamp-post, 
belonging to a neat and airy native tea-house, 
where pretty girls sat in the veranda, guests came 
and went, and rows of bright lanterns swung 
every evening. 

The village population is composed largely of 
colonists from the south, attracted to these re- 
mote shores by herring and salmon fishing. For 
less than ten years has the little hamlet been 
really established ; the Japanese are not fond of 
colonizing new regions, and only the money so 
easily made in spring and autumn would have 
lured them from their natural habitat. At those 
seasons the number of dwellers in Esashi rises 
from seventeen hundred to nearly four thou- 
sand. 

The master fishermen become quite wealthy, 
employing from thirty to fifty men, some of 
whom are Ainu, in the actual labor of setting nets 
and bringing in the spoil. They have, too, much 
variety in their lives, often living at Hakodate in 
the winter, and taking frequent business journeys 
to Tokyo. Their children attend good schools, 
often colleges, and their houses are full of beauty 
and tasteful arrangement. As the potential 
wealth of the Hokkaido becomes more widely 
appreciated, probably it will not long be left to 
merely primeval loneliness. All these colonists, 
while distinctively Japanese, yet live in sufficient 



ESASHI IN KITAMT 283 

harmony with the Ainu, whose primitive villages 
are near by in all directions. 

Strolling pilgrim-beggars in dingy white soli- 
cited alms with much unmelodious music, — there 
were attempts at matsicri where in place of the 
gorgeous floats of Kyoto were devotees, not rid- 
ing in elegance, but walking amid artificial 
cherry blossoms in little floorless inclosures 
under canopies simulating rolling cars, — a pa- 
thetic deception deceiving nobody ; and more 
secular festivals occurred, booths were erected, 
plays performed, and female wrestlers contended. 

My first walk abroad as the first foreign wo- 
man visitor in Esashi was a memorable occasion 
— to both entertainer and entertained. Chief 
escorted me through the principal thoroughfares, 
followed by an imposing procession whom in- 
tense wonder kept absolutely speechless. But at 
last one ecstatic small boy in dark blue kimono 
tucked up to allow freedom of limb motion re- 
covered breath sufficiently, while marching close 
beside the principal performer, to produce a tin 
trumpet, upon which he blew vociferously, attract- 
ing the attention of all beholders. This body- 
guard augmented at every corner, and the whole 
thing partook of the nature of a triumphal pro- 
gression. Most of the followers were Japanese, 
but a few Ainu haunted the outskirts of the 
throng, with stately tread and lofty expression, 



284 CORONA AND CORONET 

apparently looking for nothing unusual, and giv- 
ing no evidence of curiosity, yet never failing to 
see every foreign figure within range. Humbly 
accompanying their lords, women and children 
followed, — far less imposing than the men. 
Larger and apparently stronger than the Japan- 
ese, although not taller, the older men are actu- 
ally patriarchal, with their long beards, and 
masses of thick hair parted in the middle, while 
on many faces the expression is as benign and 
lofty as that of a pictured apostle. Part of the 
walk that evening was over the pathway of clean 
sand spread for the Emperor's portrait. In these 
far and simple villages the old-time, acute rever- 
ence for everything pertaining to royalty is de- 
lightfully and solemnly preserved. 

But Esashi is not really picturesque, — the 
wreck of a native steamer cast up on the beach 
by storms of the previous November, with the 
rough tent near by where its supposed watch- 
ers lived a more than primitive life, verged on 
the picturesque ; but the Ishikawa-maru was not 
sufficiently beaten in pieces to typify that quality 
dear to artists. 

Perhaps, after all, it was most nearly ap- 
proached by a small Shinto temple close to the 
shore, with a neatly kept graveled courtyard 
and two handsome torii^ one of fine granite. 
The ministering priest, an odd-looking Japan- 



ESASHI IN KITAMI 285 

ese with a sparse beard and an indifferent expres- 
sion, spent an uneventful existence largely in 
watering handsome plants growing in vases and 
jars around the temple. 

In the same inclosure, rising abruptly from 
the rocks of the shore, perhaps fifty feet high, 
stood a little lighthouse in which every night a 
student lamp burned dutifully. A narrow plat- 
form around the summit, reached by an open 
outside ladder, was the point from which I 
should draw the long, filmy streamers of the 
outer corona during the precious two minutes 
and forty seconds of totality on August ninth. 

One important project was necessarily aban- 
doned. No auxiliary stations could be estab- 
lished, as planned, upon some distant range of 
hills. The whole region was simply impassable ; 
thick, impenetrable forests clothed every height, 
while scrub bamboo six or eight feet high cov- 
ered all the open country. Footpaths through 
it from one village to another never left the 
shore for any distance, and no telescopes could 
be transported inland. There were no jinrik- 
isha, or roads, or carriages, or kago^ or side- 
saddles, but plenty of horses ; and many a mile 
of Kitami sands has felt the galloping feet of my 
rough little Yezo horse, as I traversed the coun- 
try far and near, while the astronomers were ad- 
justing apparatus, and testing plates and object 
glasses. 



286 CORONA AND CORONET 

On one morning ride a small colt started with 
us, its mother ridden by a member of the com- 
pany ; but after a mile or two of racing it 
thought better of the trip, and returned to graze 
on the breezy upland moor. Coming home about 
twilight after a day with the Ainu, the sweetly 
plaintive cry of sandpipers in flocks along the 
beach rose familiarly as we rode at a great pace 
on the narrow margin of sand above high tide ; 
and a sort of lonely quail, almost a whippoorwill 
note, came to us out of the woods. Through 
the fast-falling darkness we sped away, up the 
bluff, spattering through the deep mud of Esa- 
shi street, followed by the wild, welcoming cries 
of the little colt we had left behind. 

Hokkaido horses themselves deserve a sepa- 
rate word. They seem to possess an abundance 
of good qualities which their appearance would 
scarcely justify our anticipating. Ordinarily they 
use two gaits, a short, quick trot — rather an in- 
discriminate sort of scramble — and a smooth 
gallop, rapid and comfortable. Both Ainu and 
Japanese are fearless and skillful riders through 
the narrow paths among the tall undergrowth. 
Largely of scrub bamboo, as already mentioned, 
there are acres here and there superb with wild 
roses, their foliage richly green like the Cher- 
okee rose ; tall spikes of burnt weed {Epilo- 
bium) raised familiar torches ; one or two rare 



ESASHI IN KITAMI 287 

orchids were seen ; and graceful clusters of 
purple nightshade were now and again turning 
into green and yellow and crimson berries. 
White chamomile, irresistibly suggesting dusty 
roadsides in New England, grew as large and 
high as marguerites, while " butter and eggs " 
carpeted the ground, growing flat against the 
sandy soil, well down to its tryst with the creep- 
ing surf. 

A few deciduous trees appeared among the 
evergreens, their autumn coloring reported as very 
brilliant. 

Horse-flies of scintillating green, over an inch 
long but not aggressive, were noticeable residents 
of the village, — overrun also by crows, thou- 
sands perching on every gable and ridgepole, 
and filling the air with flaps of dusky wings and 
occasional impious remarks. Hawthorne was 
discriminating when he asserted that crows can 
have no real pretension to religion, in spite of 
sober mien and black attire, because they are 
certainly thieves and probably infidels. But in 
Yezo they are safe from molestation and propor- 
tionally saucy. 

An Ainu legend relates that in time long ago, 
the evil one was contending with God, frustrat- 
ing his designs wherever possible. Seeing that 
men, his especial creation, could not live with- 
out the life-giving warmth and light of the sun, 



288 CORONA AND CORONET 

he determined to get up long before sunrise, and 
swallow the " lord of day " so soon as he should 
appear. But God sent a crow to circumvent him. 
When the sun was rising, the evil one opened 
his mouth, but a crow flew down his throat in- 
stead, thus saving the great luminary. Men 
therefore should ever be grateful to crows ; and 
crows know it, indulging themselves in conse- 
quence. They feel no terror of a scarecrow, 
flocking near in great numbers, and even perch 
lovingly on its shoulder. 

The morning evolutions of six crows and a 
black cat were worthy an eloquent description. 
Three on each side of her, they attacked singly 
and on alternate sides, her nearest neighbor 
pecking savagely and flying away to the end of 
the row when she retaliated ; while the next 
moved up and continued the sport as soon as the 
cat had turned upon and vanquished the nearest 
crow on the opposite side. That particular pussy 
must have been puzzled to understand why, 
always worsted and driven away, the number of 
her enemies remained on either side unchanged. 
This cat for some reason had a tail, — unlike the 
proper Japanese species. 

Early dawn, just after sunrise, and when far- 
ther naps had been effectually banished by the 
awkward two-steps of these favored crows upon 
our shingle roof, was the favorite time for offi- 



ESASHI IN KITAMI 289 

cial calls. A knock was followed by the en- 
trance of our interpreter, Mr. Oshima, an able 
student sent from Sapporo by the governor ; 
and following him were one and another -^ mem- 
bers of the Board of Education, or government 
officials, or local magnates. 

With morning coffee on our part, and gifts of 
interesting fossils and jasper of the region on 
theirs, these occasions were mutually gratifying. 
Fortunately a Japanese kimono was quite full 
dress, which simplified matters from toilet stand- 
points. 

We received these gentlemen in the Profes- 
sor's office or headquarters, around whose walls 
on very convenient shelves he had arranged for 
safety until needed numberless eyepieces, lenses, 
electrical appliances, a few books, object-glasses 
in shining brass holders, levels, transit lamps, 
photographic plates, — everything one could im- 
agine needful for an astronomical expedition. 

During one of these impromptu ante-breakfast 
receptions at five in the morning, the mayor of 
the town, glancing round our apartment, gave 
utterance to a long and elaborate speech, — duly 
accompanied by low bows and friendly smiles, — 
evidently the daintiest of oriental comphments. 
In effect it was that in these shelves the chil- 
dren of the school had been wont to keep their 
shoes in former days ; and that he hoped a sort 



290 CORONA AND CORONET 

of reflex action from the wonderful objects now 
filling the same spaces might extend to every 
child whose straw or wooden clogs had once 
occupied them, imparting to each something of 
the devoted scientific spirit now animating the 
"famous men" who had come so far to see a 
sublime celestial spectacle. 

A leading citizen of Esashi, Mr. Hiroya, had 
an airy house facing the sea, which every night 
was gayly illuminated by hundreds of paper lan- 
terns swinging in rows and loops along the front, 
and he invited us to an elaborate dinner the 
evening after my arrival. His pretty little bride 
sat slightly apart, exquisitely dressed in gray 
silk with an obi of richest brocade, smiling and 
looking like a picture against the background 
of fine kakemonOy handsome hibachiy and bronze 
vases. 

Japanese cooking shows many grades, and on 
this particular evening everything was deliciously 
cooked and entirely palatable to foreign taste. 
Possibly, however, I should except one delicacy 
in the shape of a black shell-fish, a sea cucum- 
ber perhaps, which the other guests seemed to 
take with avidity. Captain Kimotsuki, Professor 
Terao, our official interpreter Oshima-san, and a 
number of others were present, among them a 
gentleman formerly governor of a northern pro- 
vince, containing many Ainu villages. He en- 




AINU ABOUT TO DRINK SAKE 



ESASHI IN KITAMI 291 

tertained us by clever imitations of certain Ainu 
habits in eating, drinking, and holding inter- 
course with guests. He not only speaks their 
isolated language, but is personally acquainted 
with every individual of that nation in the vicin- 
ity ; and as he kindly volunteered to take me 
to all the houses within riding distance, here was 
a solution of the vexed question of personal ap- 
proach to these shy people, — perhaps also a 
solution of Professor Morse's problem, the col- 
lection of Ainu relics. When our kindly host, 
and his servants with lanterns, conducted us 
back to the schoolhouse camp, visions of eclipses 
and Ainu, telescopes and weaving outfits, horse- 
back rides and treasure boxes mingled in new 
association invitingly in the future, and to the 
rhythmic beat of the surf dreams continued the 
picture. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

IN AINU LAND 

With grave faces turned toward oblivion. 

Special steamers and men-of-war on the sea, 
and cheerful echpse camps on shore, brought a 
surprising summer to the northern coast of Yezo, 
and the innocent Ainu will probably date future 
history from this peaceful invasion of foreigners. 
It is a happy thing that some spots are still left 
on this fair earth where modern enterprise and 
cosmopolitan life can still afford astonishment. 

Among the books so constantly written upon 
Japan in all aspects, numbering not far from a 
thousand, little in proportion has been put forth 
in English relating to the Ainu. 

Ethnologists in the Orient are largely divided 
as to whether the aborigines of Japan should be 
called Ainu or Aino, and there are strong reasons 
in favor of each form, both of which are used by 
different Japanese authorities. Upon inquiring 
of several prominent chiefs of the nation as to 
how they called themselves, and which name they 
preferred, the answer was " Ainu " invariably, with 
distinct emphasis. 



IN AINU LAND 293 



The people of this race would naturally be 
described as "hairy," even their limbs and bodies 
being often quite thickly covered, yet some ac- 
counts of this characteristic have been exagger- 
ated ; and the number of hairs on a square inch 
of an Ainu's head is said not to exceed that upon 
an equal surface of a European's. The illustra- 
tions show them as not unlike the bearded peas- 
ants of Russia; certain ethnologists hold that 
they are probably members of some branch of 
the Aryan family, others that they are akin to 
the Eskimo. 

Gentle, and subservient to the conquering Jap- 
anese, it is evident that the Ainu formerly held 
more egotistic views than now, even fancying 
themselves the centre of the universe, as shown 
perhaps by an old national song : " Gods of the 
sea, open your eyes divine. Wherever your eyes 
turn, there echoes the sound of the Ainu speech." 

Learned discussion is still in progress among 
Japanese scholars as to a probable Koro-pok-gurUy 
or race of dwarf pit - dwellers, " people of the 
hollows," who may have lived before, or partly 
contemporary with the early Ainu, and of whom 
traces are supposed to remain in various locali- 
ties. Ainu themselves insist that they once 
fought and exterminated these people. And to 
the end of the twelfth century constant warring 
between Ainu and Japanese went on, evidences 



294 CORONA AND CORONET 

of Struggle still remaining throughout the empire. 
Arrowheads and stone axes are found in many- 
parts of Yezo, and in shell-heaps are bones of 
animals, pottery, and bones peculiar to the Ainu, 
who would themselves be no farther advanced in 
civilization than the stone age were it not for the 
ease of obtaining Japanese knives and swords. 
Their primitive utensils of bark seem to serve 
them as well as more elaborate implements. To 
an ethnologist Yezo is full of interest, from pre- 
historic pottery, evidence of pit - dwellings and 
problematic Koro-pok-guru, to present habits of 
Ainu life. 

Gradually driven through ages from the south 
to Hokkaido, the Ainu are among the few races 
yet retaining in this over-civilized age an utterly- 
unspoiled simplicity. Their actual beginning has 
never been satisfactorily traced, but they cer- 
tainly were in Japan before the present race of 
Japanese had arrived, and many names clearly 
originating in the Ainu tongue are still retained 
all over the kingdom. 

The oldest of Japanese books (the Kojiki, or 
*' Records of Ancient Matters "), written in 712 
A. D., has this characteristic sentence : " When 
our august ancestors descended from heaven in a 
boat, they found upon this island several bar- 
barous races, the most fierce of whom were the 
Ainu." Whatever they may have been at that 



IN AINU LAND 295 

remote epoch it would be difficult to imagine 
a more amiable nation than the few thousand 
present remnants of this once numerous people. 
Yet they are barbarians pure and simple in spite 
of their gentleness, an interesting folk-lore, and 
the practice of considerable ceremony and forms 
of etiquette upon certain occasions. They have 
no literature, no written language, and their arts 
are the simplest. Contact with cultivated Japa- 
nese for hundreds of years seems to have taught 
them little or nothing — but extreme docility. 
Full of a sense of kindly hospitality, they have 
no ambition, and no apparent capacity for mental 
training. It is said that the descendant of a 
certain Ainu prince, or high chieftain, is now 
perfectly content to black the boots of an Ameri- 
can in Sapporo. If a genuinely strong, forceful 
leader were to appear in the race, he might arouse 
them. But they have no great men. Attempts 
at education seem to last only during the process. 
Returning to their own villages, they lapse into 
their former state, or a placid forgetfulness. 

My exploring expeditions to Poronaibo and 
other Ainu villages near Esashi began at once, in 
a method quite primitive enough to accord with 
surroundings. The good ex-governor was inde- 
fatigable. Giving most generously of his time 
and personal influence with these retiring people, 
as well as his skill in speaking their language, 



296 CORONA AND CORONET 

my facilities for acquiring an unusual acquain- 
tance with their curious habits were exceptional. 
Casual travelers visiting more accessible Ainu 
villages in the south of Yezo with an ordinary 
Japanese guide see little of their striking race 
customs ; but coming with their especial friend 
and master, I was treated more as an honored 
guest than as an inquisitive stranger full of doubt- 
ful intentions. Everything which might be of 
interest was joyfully brought forth. The fact 
that for the first time a foreign woman was 
within their borders excited much curiosity, and 
in all the villages they were no less glad to see 
me than I was to study their strange implements 
and habits. So with exceeding good-humor, 
communication made easy by my helpful friend, 
our mutual ethnologic studies progressed nobly. 
I think it was a California paper which remarked 
some months later in commenting upon my 
unique journey that probably I was quite as much 
of a " freak " to the Ainu as they could be to me 
— undoubtedly true, but a somewhat unvarnished 
statement. 

There were drawbacks, however, to protracted 
calls upon the Ainu, for both personally and in 
their houses they are quite as dirty as the Japa- 
nese are phenomenally clean. Bathing is un- 
known, and their dwellings are dark, uncomfort- 
able abodes, and far from fragrant. Each has 



IN AINU LAND 297 



two small holes for windows, — one east, the other 
south. Ainu know the points of compass, and 
some writers have insisted that their houses in- 
variably face in one way. But I saw numbers 
facing in a variety of directions, — east, north, and 
west. The east end of the house and its window 
are sacred, and outside is a row of poles upon 
which the master of the house has stuck the 
skulls of animals killed in the hunt, among them 
many inaOy or " god-sticks " as offerings to numer- 
ous deities whose aid is so constantly invoked. 
Hale Keawe, or Hawaiian tomb for the bones of 
chiefs, had its outside fence of idols, twelve being 
set in pillars in a semicircle around the south- 
east end, — a curious similarity in the customs 
of widely separate nations. 

The raised part of the floor, as in ordinary 
Japanese houses, has a square or rectangular hole, 
where during my visits fagots were always burn- 
ing, — long sticks, stretching out over the floor, 
burning at one end, until short enough to lie 
wholly within the fire-hole, whose left side is re- 
served for the master of the house. 

Smoke, although supposed to find its own way 
out of a hole in the roof, seemed to prefer loiter- 
ing among rafters and beams, — the hanging 
medley of household possessions and drying fish 
above were draped deep with soot. A jumble of 
domestic dSris usually lay in corners and around 



298 CORONA AND CORONET 

the sides of the room, and always piles of elm 
fibre {atsti) ready to be pulled apart into threads 
and woven into the coarse cloth (attush) worn by 
both men and women. This wood-fibre is obtained 
from two kinds of elm, Ulmus montana {ohiyo), 
and Ulmus canipestris {akadamd). It is pulled 
from the standing tree, started with blows from 
short knives carried by the men, and peeled off 
in a strip perhaps a foot wide and often twenty 
feet long. The ohiyo is laid in pools of water 
exposed to the sun, where the bark soon separates 
from the wood-fibre proper, which is then split 
into ten strips, and dried slowly to prevent its 
becoming brittle.^ The strips are afterward still 
farther split into threads not over an eighth of an 
inch wide, the various threads tied together, and 
wound into balls, five or six inches in diameter, 
many of which were conspicuous in every Ainu 
house visited. The women weave the thread into 
durable cloth about the width of native Japanese 
material, in pieces over thirty feet long, or about 
six and one half times the length of the extended 
arms. Such a strip occupies in the weaving three 
or four days ; and the garment, when ornamented 
with indigo' blue Japanese cotton sewed on in 
fanciful figures, is far from unpicturesque. 

Ohiyo makes a brown and reddish cloth, aka- 

1 The akadama is chewed instead of being soaked in water ; 
otherwise it is treated in the same way as the ohiyo. 



TN" AINU LAND 299 



dama bright tan ; another cloth made of ttrtica 
fibre is only used for burial purposes. 

I called at one house to see a very old man. 
The roof was thickly thatched with scrub bamboo, 
and within lay a middle-aged man sound asleep 
upon the floor, with one arm thrown over his face, 
his bushy hair and beard making a weird frame- 
work. Two or three shy children were eating 
rice near the fire-hole, over which was suspended 
an iron pot, full of an indescribable stew, bubbling 
vigorously. A pretty young girl sat sewing orna- 
ments of dark blue Japanese cotton upon an elm- 
fibre garment ; and an older woman, barefooted, 
with hair cut very short behind, was curled in a 
tiny heap, looking up at me from under her arm 
with eyes as bright and wondering in their soft 
darkness as those of some shy and startled forest 
animal. 

Family treasures, as usual, were piled around 
the room in chaotic masses, conspicuous among 
them, as everywhere, several shundokuy round 
boxes with four feet, of old Japanese lacquer, in 
which everything of most value is kept, and which 
the owner will part with last, if misfortune over- 
takes him. Frequently handed down through 
generations, an Ainu not fortunate enough to in- 
herit one will often work a year to obtain such 
a highly prized case. 

An ancient legend relates that nearly a thou- 



300 CORONA AND CORONET 

sand years ago their hero Yoshitsune, brother of 
the Shogun Yoritomo, in escaping to the Hok- 
kaido from his enemies, took refuge in one of 
these lacquer boxes, miraculously enabled to re- 
ceive him, and was conveyed away by a loyal ad- 
herent to a place of safety. This is often given in 
explanation of Ainu devotion to these recepta- 
cles; and also of the holes in the lacquer supports 

— through which cords were said to have been 
passed, thence across the shoulders of that " faith- 
ful one " whose back received the precious burden, 

— a widespread fiction. Kakemono representing 
Yoshitsune are brought out on feast days and re- 
verently hung. 

At length through the low doorway approached 
the old man we had come to visit, but the room 
was so dark that his fine face could hardly show 
in detail. He was an impressive figure, with a 
magnificent brush of white hair and beard. 

But oh ! the smoke and odors; soot, close air, 
dim light, huddling family ; the mental as well as 
physical atmosphere was stifling, and I was forced 
to seek the intense relief of a full breath of outer 
oxygen, and sunshine. Emerging, the first object 
my eyes happened to fall upon was the French 
cruiser lying off in the open roadstead of Esashi. 
Such are the sharp and immediate contrasts in 
this interesting world, — on one hand an epitome 
of high civilization, on the other, Ainu huts and a 




OLD AINU CHIEFTAIN 



IN AINU LAND 301 

near-at-hand study of an aboriginal race now rap- 
idly dying out from sheer inability to maintain it- 
self in the face of a more brilliant nation. 

One night a dinner-party upon the French man- 
of-war, — the next morning a visit to a primitive 
hovel within plain sight, where books had never 
been heard of, where furniture is unknown, where 
lives, sleeps, eats, weaves, is born and dies, upon 
the floor around a boiling pot of dreadful herbs, 
an entire family whose one relief from intolerable 
monotony is the occasional bear-killing and feast. 

Salutation between Ainu men is elaborate and 
exceedingly respectful. Stretching out their 
hands, the fingers are allowed to pass softly back 
and forth along the palms for some time, during 
which verbal greetings and best wishes are ex- 
changed. Stroking their long beards slowly is 
the part most obvious to a foreigner ; while a gen- 
tle and inarticulate sound is made in the throat, 
intended to convey consideration and appreciation. 
The formal salutation sometimes lasts but a few 
minutes, though often much longer. Women in- 
dulge in very humble greeting to the men, part of 
which consists in rubbing the upper lip under the 
nose with the forefinger. Preliminary motions 
having been made to attract a man's attention 
sufficiently for him to indicate that she may pro- 
ceed, she waits his invitation to speak. When a 
man is met out of doors, women always step aside 



302 CORONA AND CORONET 

to give him room to pass. But with all this hu- 
mility, although they do all the work with con- 
stant industry, and even the consolations of the 
most primitive religion are denied them (for wo- 
men are not even allowed to pray since they are 
generally supposed to possess no souls), neverthe- 
less, an angry woman is one of the things most 
dreaded in Ainu land. The variety of bad names 
at her command to call the offending person is 
stupendous, and the number of adjectives with 
which she can heap abuse is really startling. She 
does not scruple to make faces and otherwise 
annoy and frighten whoever may have incurred 
her anger; and the lords of Yezo are terribly 
afraid of a woman in this state of mind, for there 
seems hardly any end to the vindictive perform- 
ances with which she will afflict a man who has 
displeased her, especially if he be her husband. 
The very worst thing she can do, however, is 
to hide his "god-sticks," or destroy them. The 
deities can hardly be supposed to discriminate as 
to the person making away with the sacred sym- 
bols, and a man who neglects his inao becomes an 
outcast ; the gods being supposed to desert him, 
men follow suit. 

Women, continually repressed and allowed no 
part in religion, probably sometimes become so 
reckless as to fear neither gods nor man, for sui- 
cides among them are not uncommon. After 



IN AINU LAND 303 



early youth they are by no means to be compared 
with the men in fine appearance. Many girls are 
handsome, but the women of middle age are char- 
acterized by a stolidly dull expression of indiffer- 
ent and weather-beaten resignation. 

Long ago, in the first days when travelers 
caught sight of Ainu women, it is not strange 
that they were described as wearing mustaches, 
since, from a short distance away the heavy, blue- 
black tattooing around the lips gives exactly that 
unlovely effect. The process of producing such 
mouth-decoration is described as exceedingly pain- 
ful, but the Ainu women have borne it heroically, 
sustained by their happy certainty of a beautify- 
ing result. Horizontal slashes are made with a 
sharp knife, crossed by slanting cuts very close 
together and subsequently opened wider. Color- 
ing matter, made from the soot of birch wood 
scraped from the bottom of an iron kettle, is then 
rubbed in unflinchingly, and afterward washed 
with water in which ash bark has been soaked, to 
produce an indelible stain. For two or three days 
the lips are so swollen and sore that moving them, 
or attempting to eat, is almost impossible. But 
when once healed, imagine the satisfaction of 
emerging among one's friends and enemies, deco- 
rated for life ! Many women have their hands, 
wrists, and arms similarly treated, showing shad- 
owy rings and bracelets in every available spot; 



304 CORONA AND CORONET 

and I saw a few with heavily ornamented fore- 
heads. Young girls are attractive, for the dismal 
tattooing was forbidden by the Japanese govern- 
ment about eleven years ago, and while not abso- 
lutely suppressed, it must be done surreptitiously, 
and is far less frequent than formerly. Their 
clear brown skin generally shows a warm russet 
red in the cheeks, and beautiful dark eyes are 
shaded by long and thick eyelashes. In the 
younger generation, too, the luxuriant black hair 
is often simply coiled instead of being cut in the 
strangely awkward native way, perfectly short at 
the back of the head nearly halfway to the top, 
and standing out thickly on each side like an over- 
grown hearth - brush. A blue and white Japan- 
ese towel is sometimes rather artistically twisted 
around the head. It has been reported, though I 
did not notice this, that wives of chiefs wear a 
string wound six times round the waist, those of 
common men but three. Ainu women do not 
blacken their teeth, as Japanese fashion formerly 
decreed for married women of that nation, but 
they have handsome teeth, white and even. Inor- 
dinately fond of jewelry of whatever material, the 
richest woman is she who owns the largest num- 
ber of necklaces, made of large porcelain or stone 
beads with huge circular ornaments suspended 
from them, sometimes pieces of leather studded 
with bits of brass or German silver. The beads 



IN AINU LAND 305 



are undeniably picturesque, many of a brilliant 
turquoise blue, and oddly mottled ones brought 
from Saghalien. These necklaces are worn at 
bear-feasts, when everything is in gala array for 
the only great occasions of the Ainu year. 

Of course I wished to purchase one of these 
characteristic ornaments ; and at last I found a 
woman, who, contrary to the usual custom, thought 
she would like some money ; and rather sadly, yet 
with much pride, brought forth a box containing 
five bead necklaces. She was certainly a person 
of great consequence ; but she fingered her pos- 
sessions lovingly, looking regretfully at her cher- 
ished riches, though allowing me to examine 
them, while she said softly in her strange native 
tongue that the foreign lady might take her 
choice. Personally she would undoubtedly have 
been satisfied with very little money ; but an old 
Japanese man in the village, of much apparent 
authority, sent word to her that as he had origi- 
nally purchased the beads before she had come 
into possession of them, he would tell her their 
exact worth. Whereupon he proceeded to esti- 
mate the value, bead by bead, making the gentle 
Ainu woman open her soft brown eyes in amaze- 
ment under their long lashes, and causing con- 
siderable discouragement in the breast of the 
would-be purchaser. We came to an ultimate 
understanding, however, and I bore the necklace 
away in triumph. 



306 CORONA AND CORONET 

When some person of high rank in the nation 
comes to an Ainu house, a formal and ceremoni- 
ous sake drinking takes place. A drop is whisked 
off the " mustache-lifter " to the god of the sun, 
Chippu Kamui in the Ainu language ; next, one 
to the god of mountains, Kimon Kamui, then the 
god of the sea, Atoi Kamui, to the god of Hok- 
kaido, Mushirori Kamui, the god of villages, Ko- 
tangoro Kamui, the god of the house, Tsuigoro 
Kamui, the god of fire, Abe Kamui, and to the 
god of all, Obishida Kamui, who is included last 
with a comprehensive sweep of the mustache- 
lifter around the whole room. Only the first cup 
of sake must be thus dispersed to the reigning 
powers; all subsequent drops being religiously 
kept for the active participants in the ceremony, 
who may then proceed to enjoy themselves with 
light hearts. These carved sticks, used to lift the 
heavy hair from the lip when drinking, are often 
elaborately ornamented. 

During one of my rides, a number of rivers had 
to be crossed, either by fording, or by a primitive 
boat pulled across by a rope. One village of 
about twenty houses was close to a stream, and 
as we rode directly to the ferry, in order to get 
luncheon at a Japanese house a mile or two be- 
yond, several thickly bearded men followed to 
watch and perhaps assist the embarkation, while 
a handsome girl ran down to beg that we should 



IN AINU LAND 307 

Stop on the return ; for she must see the foreign 
lady, fearing no other would ever visit the village. 
A withered old crone, bent quite double, and 
walking with much difficulty by aid of a long staff 
whose curiously carved top reached high above 
her head, hobbled after, giving voluble directions 
to the men about getting us over the river. Quite 
different from the expression of the older women 
generally, her face had a keen, cunning, almost 
sinister look, and bushy white hair stood out on 
both sides as if electrified. Huge hoops of Ger- 
man silver ornamented her ears, and a broad brass 
bracelet her tattooed arm. Her mouth, too, was 
heavily tattooed, and she held her elm-fibre robe 
tightly together with one shriveled hand. Across 
the river her small, sharp eyes followed us, even 
after we had struck into a quick gallop on the 
beach beyond. A weird fascination hung about 
this odd antiquity, and fortunately on the return 
a hard shower necessitated taking shelter in the 
house where she seemed to live. 

Around were grouped daughters and grand- 
daughters, both generations with babies strapped 
upon their backs, Japanese fashion, all but the 
youngest girls showing the disfigurement of blue- 
black stripes around the lips. Fagots burned as 
usual in the square hole, and lying about it were 
a number of lazy Ainu men, their strong, almost 
prehensile toes luxuriously spread out to the 



3o8 CORONA AND CORONET 

blaze. The whole household made way politely 
for the drenched foreigner and her companions, 
— producing tea and sweetmeats after hats and 
gloves had been taken to the fire to be dried. It 
was here that one of the younger girls promised 
to give an Ainu dance ; but afterward, overcome 
by shyness, she slipped away. 

Several women were, as usual, industriously en- 
gaged in sewing upon the aprons and kimono of 
elm-fibre different figures cut from Japanese cot- 
ton ; and one was weaving the woody cloth in a 
primitive loom quite handsomely carved. It was 
a strange scene, — dark room, fitfully flickering 
fire, idle men with their noble faces, industrious 
women working by the firelight or leaning toward 
the faint light coming in at an open door from the 
clouded day without, and the visitors in the midst 
of them, treated as honored guests yet not dis- 
turbing the family routine. Just outside, the drip- 
ping horses waited to be remounted, ready to 
resume their miscellaneous scramble or free, wild 
gallop back to Esashi, while sharp-nosed dogs 
with glorious thick yellow coats peered in at the 
door. 

I found here a small man, dark and very hairy, 
with a gentle expression, who was willing to sell 
*'the best bow in the village." He had actual 
tears in his eyes as he told me how many bears it 
had shot, but that now, since hunting with poisoned 



IN AINU LAND 309 



arrows was forbidden, he saw no use in keeping it 
longer, — a small tragedy in its way. 

The Ainu seem to consider the world as round, 
yet they are quite ignorant of astronomy, and re- 
gard the Milky Way as the "river of the gods," 
affording excellent sport to divinities who spend 
their time fishing in it. I discovered that great 
fear is held of comets, or "broom stars." They 
call one lunation a month, and twelve lunations 
a year. In their language star is kidda^ the sun 
chipkommoi, and the moon kzmy chipkommoi. 

Fish, and in later years rice, with a few vege- 
tables cultivated by women, certain lily bulbs and 
seaweed, form their usual food, bear's meat and 
venison being great luxuries. 

In early spring, when the deep snows of a Yezo 
winter are yet hard upon the ground, the mighty 
Ainu hunter sets forth upon the only occupation 
which seems to him worthy of manly attention. 
The favor of the gods is always asked before 
starting out on one of these exciting and momen- 
tous excursions, the deities presiding over moun- 
tains, rivers, springs, and fire being entreated in 
turn to lend aid to the enterprise. After the bear 
has been killed, either in its den where it still lies 
partially torpid until warmer weather, or just out- 
side, having been annoyed into emerging, or in 
the pit where it has been decoyed, the hunters 
make profound obeisance to this object of their 



310 CORONA AND CORONET 

admiration. Spring-bows or traps are sometimes 
stretched in the woods, when the unhappy bear 
shoots himself. Upon returning to the village the 
whole scene is related in realistic fashion to those 
left behind, while the deities are praised for their 
gracious presence which brought success to the 
hunt, and sake is taken in unlimited quantities 
with bear's meat at the great feast. Getting stu- 
pidly drunk upon sake is, indeed, the chief vice 
of an otherwise amiable and harmless race. It is 
said that of the Ainu men nine out of ten are sake 
drunkards. Fortunately the women are not con- 
sidered worthy to receive enough of the precious 
liquid to reduce them to any such state. 

Bear cubs, often taken alive, are nourished and 
brought up by the women in the same way as very 
young infants. This curious fact, stated by some 
writers, has been as vigorously denied by others ; 
but Esashi held many eye-witnesses to the reality of 
this barbarous custom. When the baby bear gets 
too large for a safe playmate in the house, a great 
entertainment is made to which guests are invited, 
even from distant villages ; the women are arrayed 
in all their pomp of jewelry and beads, some going 
so far, it was asserted, as to wash their hands. 
The men put on their head-dress of shavings, and 
the sacred sticks of shaven willow are stuck in the 
hearth as offerings to the gods. The little bear is 
then killed in a very cruel manner, after his pardon 



IN AINU LAND 311 

is asked for doing away with him. Scenes of rev- 
elry follow for two or three days, when sake is 
again drunk to excess, and rioting prevails until 
the meat is all eaten. Then the village resumes 
its wonted dullness. Bear festivals, now becoming 
rarer, are the opera, theatre, afternoon tea, recep- 
tion, and dinner-party of the Ainu. 

Shooting bears with poisoned arrows has now, 
like tattooing the mouth, been forbidden by gov- 
ernment. The poison with which the hollow 
groove in the arrow-head was filled was made 
from a combination of the brains of crows, ashes 
of tobacco, and two kinds of insects, one of them 
the krombiy a water insect found attached to sticks 
and stones, the other called yonsike. These four 
ingredients mixed together and allowed to decay 
form a strong poison. Sometimes, however, the 
deadly nightshade was used instead. In Saghalien 
aconite roots are cleaned and scraped, then sliced 
and pounded to powder, which is boiled and 
strained, boiled again, .and carefully put away, 
perhaps in a shell. Six dead spiders are boiled, 
and put in another shell ; and the gall from three 
freshly killed foxes is also boiled by itself. These 
three concoctions are then mixed, and the strength 
of the combination tested by touching it to the 
tongue. 

Ainu implements, garments, and utensils have 
often, like lacquer treasure-boxes, been handed 



312 CORONA AND CORONET 

down for uncounted years. Frequently a family 
has but one of each article, and that highly prized, 
which accounts for a prevailing disinclination to 
sell their possessions. To buy anything from an 
Ainu house requires tact and diplomacy even more 
than that necessary in purchasing old mahogany 
or china from some unwilling but hesitating eld- 
erly lady on a lonely New England country road. 
My knowledge of the Ainu tongue being even less 
than my familiarity with Japanese, I left all these 
little amenities to my companion, only telling him 
that I would buy everything they were willing to 
sell. His persuasiveness, and the promise of un- 
limited sake besides purchase money, brought me a 
miscellaneous collection of Ainu robes of elm-fibre, 
and one of highly ornamented salmon skin, bows 
and a quiver of poisoned arrows, weaving appa- 
ratus, carved "mustache lifters," tobacco boxes, 
knife handles and sheaths, and a rude stringed 
instrument. He also induced them to part with 
other dearly cherished heirlooms ; and one or two 
pieces of old Japanese lacquer, made for Ainu use, 
have found their way to a distant land, as well as 
more primitive utensils of birch bark. The larger 
part of this collection has gone to Professor Morse, 
and has become part of the Peabody Museum at 
Salem. I have, too, a wooden eating bowl, rudely 
carved. As it was never washed, but merely 
wiped out with the finger after using, it has ac- 




^ 4 



IN AINU LAND 313 

quired a rich and polished brown surface. I do 
not use it for bonbons. A "deer-call" I did not 
find, — a bamboo instrument with skin stretched 
across, by which the cry of deer is imitated. 

Aprons, ankle coverings, and bands passing 
around the forehead by which women carry heavy 
burdens on their backs, all made of elm-fibre cloth, 
I succeeded in obtaining; and still better, two 
"god-sticks," the inao mentioned before. They 
are not idols, but more properly offerings to the 
god. Maple and willow are commonly used, one 
end being converted into long and fine curly shav- 
ings, either pulled apart in a fluffy mass or kept in 
different sorts of careful ringlets. The fluffy one 
is dedicated to the god of fire, the smoothly curled 
one given me, to the god of the mountains. They 
refused any money for these sticks, which are 
made with some sort of sacred ceremony, but sig- 
nified their willingness to accept a few quarts of 
sake^ and of rice. These luxuries, dedicated to 
the god in whose honor the sticks were made, are 
rededicated, after sufficient time has elapsed, to 
the master of the house and his friends in a more 
practical way. The Ainu near Esashi had quite 
taken me to their innocent hearts, and every day 
some of them came with one thing and another, 
learning that I really enjoyed their utensils and 
ornaments. When an old woman appeared at the 
eclipse station carrying one of their greatly valued 



314 CORONA AND CORONET 

round lacquer boxes, with permission for me to 
buy it, I felt that I had really won their affection. 

In these northern regions Ainu often possess 
two residences, perhaps because of the extremely 
rigorous climate of Yezo, necessitating greater 
shelter during deep snows. The Sea of Okhotsk 
is sometimes blocked with ice for many miles from 
the coast. The winter home is called in their own 
language as nearly as I could write it, riya kotan, 
the latter word meaning "residing place," while 
riya is the equivalent of "to pass the year," ap- 
plied to the winter. Their summer home seems 
to have no corresponding term, but if in Horo- 
betsu, for instance, it would be called Horobetsu- 
tsui-karu, "to build " in that town. This was told 
me at Esashi by Japanese who speak the Ainu 
language, and by an Ainu himself. 

As a people they are very superstitious, and 
fortune-telling prevails to a certain extent, not by 
the lines of the palm, but in ways quite as pictur- 
esque and perhaps not less effective. After dark 
the fire is extinguished, and two small bamboo 
sticks crossed and tied together are laid before the 
fortune-teller, who begins to pray aloud. Before 
long, so an intelligent Ainu told me seriously, the 
bamboo sticks stand upright unaided, and are said 
by some of the more devout actually to dance, thus 
indicating that the spirit of the god has entered 
into them, and is quite prepared to reveal the 



IN AINU LAND 315 

unknown. The fortune-teller is then moved to 
speak their fate for others in the assembly, who 
keep their heads devoutly bowed. 

Medicines and care of the sick are recent inno- 
vations. Formerly, when a person became ill, he 
simply wrapped up his head and lay down uncom- 
plainingly to die, — the chief attempt to circum- 
vent fate being prayers to the gods, although 
certain herbs, in various strange decoctions, were 
used for familiar diseases. Superstitious ceremo- 
nies accompanied drawing out evil spirits, and 
charms were given to bring back the god of 
health. 

But when death has actually taken place, the 
subject is so full of horror that the Ainu wish to 
forget it as soon as possible. Some necessary 
formalities have to be endured, however. Large 
household fires and feasts begin, crowds assemble, 
the chief treasures of the dead person are brought 
out, and countless god-sticks are made and placed 
about the body and the house. Finally, the corpse 
is buried, and they try at once to forget the place 
of burial, although sticks cut in the form of a 
spear, for a man, are placed at the grave ; but the 
Ainu will not tell strangers where their dead are 
buried, and any ethnological collection is a remark- 
able one which can boast a " grave-post " or an 
Ainu skull. Each grave is in a separate locality, 
far away in the forest or among the mountains, 



3i6 CORONA AND CORONET 

and fear of ghosts is so great that the survivors 
almost never visit a grave ; the posts are apt to 
disappear soon, and the whole matter is covered 
in oblivion. As an Ainu stands in deadly terror 
of an angry woman, so he fears nothing so much 
as the ghost of an old woman, thought to be full 
of maliciousness and power for evil. A sort of 
belief in an individual immortality is thus shown 
to be inherent, in spite of the refusal to believe 
practically that a woman has a soul. Some of 
their certainties about a future existence would be 
of great interest to psychical societies. 

Few tribes remaining anywhere, indeed, will so 
well repay study, yet there are few of whom so 
little can be known. With no written language 
there can have been no reliable records, and their 
dread of speaking of the dead is an impediment 
to the accurate transmission of verbal history. 
Necessarily the Ainu are being pushed to the 
wall by the keen and brilliant Japanese, and have 
well been said to live "a petrified life." Yet 
the government makes wise laws for protection 
of these children of the nation, and acts toward 
them in an altogether civilized manner. A society 
exists in Sapporo for their assistance, which num- 
bers among its members several distinguished 
Japanese scholars, one of them Professor Nagata, 
an expert in Ainu matters, and one of the best 
historians in Japan. One result only is inevitable 



IN AINU LAND 317 



from the collision of two races where one is far 
inferior and the other is masterfully conscious of 
itself. 

Although a late census numbers about 17,000 
Ainu, a slight gain over previous years, the im- 
pression seems to be generally prevalent that they 
are actually and steadily dying out. Half-breeds, 
Ainu and Japanese, rarely survive the second or 
third generation. The race evidently lacks force, 
and will be entirely unable to hold its own in the 
march of nations. Bears are decreasing in num- 
ber; many characteristic customs are forbidden 
by law, and will soon die out completely; and 
gradual extinction of the race will be a pathetic 
feature of the further development of the Hok- 
kaido. 

But sun and moon, in their inconceivable flight 
through space, were almost in line, the day was 
close at hand, and my interest in these singularly 
fascinating Ainu was lost in a study of clouds and 
weather conditions, the working of apparatus, and 
of celestial rather than earthly curiosities. 

Summer's climax came upon Esashi. 



CHAPTER XXIX 



THE ECLIPSE 



To solemnize this day the glorious sun 
Stays in his course. 

Shakespeare, King John, III. i. 

Friday, the seventh of August, dawned por- 
tentously, with a strong south wind and drifting 
clouds. It was very warm, and bright at inter- 
vals. By evening rain set in, and all night tor- 
rents of water fell on the roof with a noise like 
shot. Saturday brought more south wind, occa- 
sional rain, moving cloud. Once in a while 
spots of blue shone through — increasing the 
nerve tension. The Astronomer, cheerful, ener- 
getic, showed no sign that nature's vagaries and 
threats were disturbing him, but, constantly busy 
with final details, passed from one instrument to 
another, clear, methodical, definite. Working of 
apparatus was perfect ; motions were made with 
automatic precision, all within the time limit, all 
without human intervention except to press a 
key at the start which sent electric currents 
through its mysterious, ramifying nerves. 

Saturday toward evening the rain suddenly 
ceased; a fresh feeling in the wind disclosed a 



THE ECLIPSE 319 



change to the hopeful west, bringing a superb 
sunset, — shreds of rose and salmon and laven- 
der glowed against a yellow background. 

During the two days' rain none of our usually 
multitudinous callers had appeared ; but by the 
light of sunset a dozen or more came together, — 
guests of distinction in the town as well as the 
village officer and leading citizens. 

Another elaborate speech was made, explain- 
ing that in the storm their hearts had failed 
them ; they could not look at this fine appara- 
tus, remembering our patient preparation, when 
a chance of cloud on Sunday might ruin every- 
thing ; but that now in the light of a bright 
sunset they came joyfully, bringing congratula- 
tions upon the weather from the fishermen, who 
were said to know all signs of the sky ; and with 
hopeful portents from a book of prophecy and a 
local oracle, interrogated at a neighboring shrine. 
This cheering oracle we believed the more read- 
ily as telegrams from Sapporo and from the 
Central Meteorological Observatory at Tokyo an- 
nounced " Clear to-morrow ! '* In truth all pro- 
mised happily. 

Stars enough came out in the evening for final 
tests of the instruments, and everything was in 
readiness. 

Directions for observing the eclipse had been 
written by the Astronomer, translated into Jap- 



320 CORONA AND CORONET 

anese, printed and distributed to inhabitants all 
along the pathway of anticipated darkness, and 
some school-teachers in the village were to ascend 
a fairly accessible hill near by with implements 
for drawing the corona, and with a photographic 
instrument lent from our camp. 

Sunday dawned through a heavy shower. Sun- 
shine succeeded : cloud followed blue sky, north- 
west wind almost supplanted a damp breeze from 
the south full of scudding vapor. And still the 
hours rolled on toward two o'clock and ''first 
contact." 

The Astronomer had arranged the programme 
of each person with exactness long before. He 
still kept calmly at work, giving final directions, 
the multitude of details resolutely kept in mind 
with a philosophy as imperturbable as if skies 
were clear, and cloudless totality a celestial cer- 
tainty. Vagaries of the western horizon, the 
moods of wind and prevailing drift of cirrus and 
cumulus had no farther power to annoy or dis- 
tract. Time was too precious. It remained for 
the unofficial member of the party to alternate 
between such hope and despair that nervous 
prostration seemed imminent. She watched the 
attempt at clearing, a matter of but a few hours, 
and still hoped it would come in time. 

At one o'clock almost half the sky was blue — 
two o'clock, and the moon had already bitten a 



THE ECLIPSE 321 



small piece out of the sun's bright edge, still 
partly obscured by a dimly drifting mass of cloud. 
Half after two, and a large part of the town was 
ranged along the fence inclosing our apparatus, 
once in a while looking at the narrowing cres- 
cent, but generally at our instruments, the sober 
faces in curious contrast to sooty decorations 
from their bits of smoked glass. 

And then perceptible darkness crept onward, 
— everything grew quiet. The moon was steal- 
ing her silent way across the sun till his cres- 
cent grew thin and wan. 

The Ainu suppose an eclipse is caused by the 
fainting or dying of the sun-god, toward whom, 
as he grows black in the face, they whisk drops 
of water from god-sticks or mustache lifters as 
they would in the case of a fainting person. 

But no one spoke. 

Shortly before totality, to occur just after 
three, Esashi time, Chief and I went over to the 
little lighthouse and mounted to its summit, — 
an ideal vantage ground for a spectacle beyond 
anything else it has ever been my fortune to wit- 
ness. 

A camera was propped up beside me, with a 
plate ready for exposure upon sampans and junks 
near by, to test the photographic power of coro- 
nal light. Black disks, carefully prepared upon 
white paper, had been distributed to a number of 



322 CORONA AND CORONET 

persons, and several others were ready on the lit- 
tle platform, for drawing coronal streamers. 

By this time the light was very cold and gray, 
like stormy winter twilight. The Alger rested 
motionless on a solid sea. A man in a scarlet 
blanket at work in a junk madjg a single spot of 
color. 

Grayer and grayer grew the day, narrower and 
narrower the crescent of shining sunlight. The 
sea faded to leaden nothingness. 

Armies of crows which had pretended entire 
indifference, gazing abroad upon the scene, or 
fighting and flapping on gables and flagpoles 
with unabated energy, at last succumbed and 
flew off in a body, friends and enemies together, 
in heavy haste to a dense pine forest on the 
mountain-side. 

The Alger became invisible — sampans and 
junks faded together into colorlessness ; but 
grass and verdure turned suddenly vivid yellow- 
green. A penetrating chill fell across the land, 
as if a door had been opened into a long-closed 
vault. It was a moment of appalling suspense ; 
something was being waited for — the very air 
was portentous. 

The circling sea-gulls disappeared with strange 
cries. One white butterfly fluttered by vaguely. 
Then an instantaneous darkness leaped upon the 
world. Unearthly night enveloped all. 



iisfp'iiirisi'i 




THE ECLIPSE 323 



With an indescribable out-flashing at the same 
instant the corona burst forth in mysterious 
radiance. But dimly seen through thin cloud, it 
was nevertheless beautiful beyond description, a 
celestial flame from some unimaginable heaven. 
Simultaneously the whole northwestern sky, 
nearly to the zenith, was flooded with lurid and 
startlingly brilliant orange, across which drifted 
clouds slightly darker, like flecks of liquid flame, 
or huge ejecta from some vast volcanic Hades. 
The west and southwest gleamed in shining lemon 
yellow. 

Least like a sunset, it was too sombre and ter- 
rible. The pale, broken circle of coronal light 
still glowed on with thrilling peacefulness, while 
nature held her breath for another stage in this 
majestic spectacle. 

Well might it have been a prelude to the 
shriveling and disappearance of the whole world, 
— weird to horror, and beautiful to heartbreak, 
heaven and hell in the same sky. 

Absolute silence reigned. No human being 
spoke. No bird twittered. Even sighing of the 
surf breathed into utter repose, and not a ripple 
stirred the leaden sea. 

One human being seemed so small, so helpless, 
so slight a part of all this strangeness and mys- 
tery ! It was as if the hand of Deity had been 
visibly laid upon space and worlds, to allow one 



324 CORONA AND CORONET 

momentary glimpse of the awfulness of crea- 
tion. 

Hours might have passed — time was annihi- 
lated ; and yet when the tiniest globule of sun- 
light, a drop, a needle-shaft, a pinhole, reap- 
peared, even before it had become the slenderest 
possible crescent, the fair corona and all color in 
sky and cloud withdrew, and a natural aspect of 
stormy twilight returned. Then the two minutes 
and a half in memory seemed but a few seconds, 
— a breath, the briefest tale ever told. 

As the beautiful corona lay there in the clouds, 
a soft unearthly radiance, the poetic effect as 
strong as if in a clear sky, the scientific value 
lost in vapors, it was still noticeably flattened at 
the poles and extended equatorially, and must 
have been of unusual brilliance to show so dis- 
tinctly through cloud. The shape gives sugges- 
tion to astronomers as to new lines of future re- 
search. 

Just after totality a telegram came from the 
Astronomer Royal of England, far away on the 
southeastern coast at Akkeshi : " Thick cloud. 
Nothing done." 

Nature knows how to be cruel, or possibly it is 
mere indifference. But until, in his search after 
the unknown, man learns to circumvent cloud, 
I must still feel that she holds every advan- 
tage. On that fateful Sunday afternoon the sun, 



THE ECLIPSE 325 



emerging from partial eclipse, set cheerfully in a 
clear sky ; the next morning dawned cloudless 
and sparkling. 

A few pictures of the blurred corona were 
taken, if of little practical use, and an interest- 
ing experiment for Roentgen rays seemed to in- 
dicate their presence in coronal light, — a curious 
result, since they have not been found in full 
sunlight. 

But a useful and tangible outcome of the expe- 
dition is -afforded by this practical demonstration 
that a great number of instruments can be em- 
ployed in recording the corona automatically, not 
only dispensing with the multitude of assistants 
necessary for manipulating each at critical mo- 
ments, but virtually lengthening the precious 
minutes of totality many fold. 

The corona, thus safely caught, can now be 
laid on our tables in manifold representations, 
and interrogated through the months following 
an eclipse until the most telling questions for its 
next coming are plainly evident. 

And Esashi had vindicated its choice. Of all 
the places where meteorological observations had 
been made, it proved the best — clouds, that is, 
were thinnest. 

Nothing appeared upon the plate exposed to 
the sampans ; coronal light was not strong enough 
to impress them upon the sensitive surface. 



326 CORONA AND CORONET 

But the apparatus remains — from the ap- 
proach of the idea in Shirakawa, in 1887, when 
it was roughly but accurately carried out for the 
eclipse of that year ; the far better evolution in 
West Africa in 1889 by pneumatic contrivances; 
and the. smoothly running devices intrusted to 
electricity in Yezo in 1896, — perfected result of 
three cloudy eclipses. 



CHAPTER XXX 

A NATIVE CELEBRATION 

Whilest that the childe is young let him be instructed in vertue and lyttera- 

ture. 

Lyly, a natomy of Wit. 

Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting 

a grammar school. 

Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI., iv. 7. 

Schools — they are the Seminaries of State. 

B. JoNSON, Discoveries: 

It might naturally be supposed that an Ameri- 
can in northern Yezo would have time and to 
spare. The facts were that I was breathlessly 
hurried every day. Always there were more 
things to do than hours for their accomplish- 
ment. The Ainu must be constantly visited and 
studied, collections of ethnological articles in- 
creased, copious notes taken of all queer surround- 
ings, calls received, horseback rides up and 
down the coast (when occasionally a horse would 
lie down while fording a stream, — merely a tem- 
porary inconvenience), and, most distracting of 
all, the new school-building was dedicated with 
elaborate ceremonies, followed by a great dinner, 
the whole occupying an entire day. 

The Japanese are soberly and deeply inter- 



328 CORONA AND CORONET 

ested in education. The presence in this re- 
mote region of so many members of the Board 
from southern Yezo for the coming ceremonies 
sufficiently attested that. And the eleventh of 
August was the great day. 

There was a certain peculiarity in thinking of 
Esashi as an educational centre, but the doughty 
ex-governor, through whom I had reached the 
Ainu, who seemed to own the whole region, and 
to whom every inhabitant for miles around bowed 
to the ground when he passed, comes to Esashi 
for its advantages to his nine children. He was 
a Samurai retainer of Matsumae in old feudal 
days. Generally he has a number of Ainu as 
servants, and reported that they do excellently 
until spring, when, being consumed by a desire 
to drink sake to excess, they become practically 
useless. He is a sort of feudal dignitary him- 
self now, and had just built an immense new 
house, where he one day gave an elaborate Japan- 
ese luncheon. Eggs were served in six different 
ways ; but the most remarkable dish was the roe 
of sea-cucumber, kept for three years and eaten 
with a few drops of vinegar. Pink and elastic, it 
was considered a great delicacy. 

On dedication morning he accompanied me 
for an ante-breakfast walk to some Ainu houses 
near by, thus far omitted in my longer trips. 
All the way relays of Japanese children were 



A NATIVE CELEBRATION 329 

met, in their best clothes and with clean and 
happy faces, starting joyfully for school, the 
little girls in bright kimono and obi, their hair, 
black and shining, ornamented with gay hair- 
pins, the boys in white-crowned black caps, gray 
or dark blue kimono, and divided skirts. As we 
passed along, the friendly governor told many 
interesting tales of Saghalien, where he lived for 
several years. Curious things find their way to 
Yezo from that far island, and amid the constant 
groups of smiling children his talk grew remi- 
niscent. 

Six races inhabit those chilly shores, — Ainu, 
Manchurian, Kurin, Oroku, Nekubun, and Sau- 
ran. The governor had already presented me 
with a handsome fur rug made by Kurin women 
there from the fine head-fur of an animal some- 
what resembling a deer, but with larger feet and 
heavier ankles, and horns showing thirty or forty 
small branches. Natives call it tonakai. Mo- 
thers in Saghalien suspend bark from the rafters 
of their huts, in which the baby is swung, a 
string attached from it to the foot. Although in 
1857 there were over two thousand Ainu there, 
they have now dwindled to less than half. 

Returning to camp for breakfast, a committee 
of officials, including the vice-governor of Hok- 
kaido, and governor of Kitami and two other 
northern provinces, was found waiting to conduct 



330 CORONA AND CORONET 

the Astronomer to the school building. Very 
soon an imposing procession set forth for that 
seat of learning, surrounded by its turf fence. 
A huge triumphal arch of evergreen surmounted 
the entrance gate, with festoons of scarlet and 
white flags and lanterns. Dignitaries and guests 
were first ushered into a room with low tables 
where tea was served, adjourning afterward to the 
large schoolroom beyond, filled with boys and 
girls, around them numerous officials of educa- 
tion and government, and a few Buddhist priests 
with finely intellectual faces. Men filling na- 
tional positions had come to remote Esashi for 
this occasion, an evidence of earnest ambition 
along the best lines. 

The three astronomers. Professor Deslandres, 
Professor Terao, and Professor Todd, sat near the 
closed shrine of exquisitely smooth wood, brass 
ornaments, and royal purple drapery, containing 
the Emperor's portrait. On a corner of the plat- 
form was a minute musical instrument like a 
tiny parlor organ, also covered with purple. 
At three single notes every child rose, and, drag- 
ging unconscionably, all sang in unison the 
National Anthem (page 154). Japanese music 
avoids half-tones — founded upon the harmonic 
minor scale, the intervals most frequently sung 
are strangely unnatural, the tonic playing no 
apparent part whatever in the basis of any 



A NATIVE CELEBRATION 331 

melody, ending, as many do, in mid-air upon the 
seventh. The singing tone, moreover, is exceed- 
ingly nasal, quite different from the gentle, or- 
dinary speaking voice, and the children's throats 
actually distended with pushing and squeezing 
the notes. 

This finished, the school principal rose, faced 
the sacred cabinet, and bowed. Opening the 
doors with dignified deliberation, he exposed the 
portraits of Emperor and Empress, whereat every 
child bent to the floor, remaining in that position 
for two or three minutes in utter silence. At 
three organ notes they slowly stood upright once 
more. Facing the portraits, the principal then 
gave allegiance and congratulation in impressive 
tones, while all bent low once more, and the 
shrine was closed. 

A long box, like the case of a kakemono^ was 
next produced, and, opening it, a scroll was held 
up, containing the Emperor's message, read 
aloud while all school heads were devoutly 
bowed. 

More singing, — a piece ending on the fourth 
of the scale as the National Anthem does on the 
second, — and the good mayor, Shirasaka-san, 
rose for a speech. Still more singing at its con- 
clusion, after which the vice-governor Suzuki- 
san, read from an imposing document, and Some- 
san, head officer of the Colonial Department, 



332 CORONA AND CORONET 

addressed the assembly. To all these gentlemen 
the school rose and bowed in turn. Happily all 
the speeches were short. Some others had also 
given a few words, but their positions did not 
entitle them to bows. Finally one of the school- 
boys read some sort of a response on the part of 
the scholars, — exceedingly well too ; and another 
song followed. 

Then the American Astronomer was called 
upon ; the children rose and bowed, and remained 
standing until he finished. Among other things 
he presented the school with a fine framed pic- 
ture of the corona of 1878, one of the famous 
Trouvelot drawings, urged them to have English 
studied, and presented some books we already 
had in Esashi, promising others sent later from 
Tokyo. This speech was gracefully translated, 
sentence upon sentence, by clever Mr. Oshima. 
Afterward Professor Deslandres made a short 
speech in French, interpreted by Professor Terao, 
who, years before, had studied at the University 
of Paris. 

The mayor thanked the Astronomer for his 
gifts to the school ; an appetizing Japanese lun- 
cheon was served, the baked salmon especially 
delicious, and so the new building was fairly 
inaugurated. 

Later, toward sunset, a dinner in honor of the 
Americans was given at a spacious tea-house 



A NATIVE CELEBRATION 333 

newly built near by, the stars and stripes and 
red sun flags draped at the entrance, the feast 
occurring in a large upper room wide open on 
opposite sides to sea and town. With much 
deliberation the worthies assembled, occupying 
nearly three hours in getting there. The cook- 
ing was exceedingly fine, the serving perfect. 
Maids in waiting were charmingly dressed in 
silk crepe, blue or pale green, with magnificently 
brocaded obi, and elaborately smooth hair, like an 
exquisite picture. A wonder would irrelevantly 
intrude itself as to what sort of waitresses would 
be encountered in a "tavern" in the wilds of 
northern Maine, or in a fishing village of Nova 
Scotia, localities far easier of access than this 
Okhotsk shore. 

Just before the feast the mayor had brought in 
a long strip of white satin for a kakemono. The 
Astronomer, Chief, and I were requested to paint 
upon it either pictures or poems. Brushes, 
colors, Japanese ink, and water accompanied it. 
Chief, of course, composed an original verse. 
The Professor was content with an appropri- 
ate line or two from Shakespeare, while a few 
rushes in one corner with her name attested the 
modesty of a third contributor. Professor Terao 
placed his personal red seal upon the strip ; and 
I doubt not a memorable kakemono now adorns 
the mayor's residence. 



334 CORONA AND CORONET 

But days in the far-away little town were draw- 
ing to an end. Every time I came back from 
any excursion a few more instruments had been 
taken down, a few more boxes packed, a few 
more gifts from the kindly inhabitants brought 
in, as well as prospective kakemono in the shape 
of additional strips of silk and satin and fine 
paper for verses and autographs. Occasionally 
an aged Ainu or Japanese was found awaiting 
my return with farther aboriginal articles which 
I bought with alacrity — and yen. In the even- 
ings the watchman going his rounds beating 
two sticks to announce his faithfulness lulled us 
to slumber, and the final day came on apace. 

Captain Boutet of the Alger had courteously 
invited the Astronomer and his companion, also 
Chief, to return to Yokohama on that famous 
cruiser. A special Yusen Kaisha steamer, already 
dispatched from the south for the expedition and 
apparatus, was expected daily. 

On the sixteenth of August, a lovely summer 
day with a hint of coming coolness in the air, 
the Commandant sent his gig ashore for us, and 
truly reluctant good-bys were said, not only to 
expedition members, still waiting, but to the few 
Ainu shyly looking on from the outskirts, and to 
a crowd of warm-hearted Japanese who had done 
everything in their power for our assistance, 
honor, and pleasure. Accompanying the gig to 



A NATIVE CELEBRATION 335 

the Alger was the big sampan built for the Em- 
peror's portrait, now filled with the famihar and 
friendly faces of Shirasaka-san (the mayor) ; the 
lovable, big ex-governor ; Hiroya-san, and others 
who never ceased waving so long as we stood in 
sight upon the Commandant's overhanging after- 
balcony. 

But the lighthouse where I witnessed the 
eclipse grew smaller, and faded ; the little gray 
town disappeared. Esashi was but a memory, sad 
yet dear. 

Most unlikely is it that we shall see Yezo, 
much less Kitami Province again ; but a warm 
spot in my heart still glows at thought of this 
hospitable village, encompassed by impenetra- 
ble forest, surrounded by aboriginal Ainu, and 
facing the far north over the uneasy wastes of 
the Sea of Okhotsk. 

" The crimson sunset faded into gray ; 

Upon the murmurous sea the twilight fell; 
The last warm breath of the delicious day 
Passed with a mute farewell. 

" Above my head, in the soft purple sky, 

A wild note sounded like a shrill-voiced bell ; 
Three gulls met, wheeled, and parted with a cry 
That seemed to say, farewell." 



CHAPTER XXXI 

VOYAGE ON A FRENCH CRUISER 

Et puis, peu k peu, on vit s'eclairer tr^s loin une autre chimfere : une sorte 
de decoupure rosee trhs haute, qui ^tait un promontoire de la sombre Islande. 

Pierre Loti, Pecheur d' Islande. 

Le soleil , . . n'avait plus de halo, et son disque rond ayant repris des con- 
tours tres accuses, il semblait plutot quelque pauvre planete jaune, mouraute, 
qui se serait arretde 1^ indecise, au milieu d'un chaos. 

Loti. 

Because of a delightful habit of the Command- 
ant, the Astronomer and I were enabled to cir- 
cumnavigate the island of Yezo. Avoiding the 
same course in going and returning, Captain 
Boutet always varies his routes when possible, 
and he, like ourselves, had reached Esashi by the 
west coast. When twilight settled over the gray 
sea, L' Alger was well along toward the eastern 
end of the island, her black bow pointed almost 
due east, the little after-balcony over the water 
holding a congenial company, — the two astrono- 
mers and the Commandant watching the fading 
shores, while I sat just inside the door, in the 
dainty salon which with the two or three other 
apartments forming his own private suite Captain 
Boutet had devoted to his newest guest. 

He has been an indefatigable and discriminat- 



VOYAGE ON A FRENCH CRUISER 337 

ing collector of fine Japanese and Chinese plates, 
platters, and odd pieces of porcelain, which deco- 
rate superbly the walls and ceilings of these 
charming rooms when in port, — all carefully- 
packed away at sea. Still, articles enough of a 
less frangible nature adorn them constantly, to 
conceal, or at least to grace, the solid steel walls 
of this great war vessel. 

"Automatic photography of celestial objects is 
the astronomy of the future," Professor Des- 
landres was saying, as the waves beneath the 
balcony grew rougher, and the three came in to 
the brightly lighted parlor, gay with panels and 
kakemonOy " and Professor Todd is its precursor 
and prophet." 

His interest in the Amherst apparatus had 
been strong, as ours in his own fine spectro- 
scopes, and many delightful calls between the 
two stations had passed at Esashi. But this 
evening at sea was really the first quiet, unhur- 
ried, and really favorable time for talking over 
technical matters ; and I soon left them for the 
little bedroom with its square window opening to 
wide sea and sky, the fascinating blue dragon 
china fittings, each a separate work of art, and 
the luxurious bed, compared with which Japan- 
ese mats in the dear old Esashi schoolhouse felt 
very hard even in remembrance. 

Fog occasionally drifted up, but blue sky and 



338 CORONA AND CORONET 

sunshine soon followed on this happy voyage, 
and a few hours of heavy swells necessitated tak- 
ing in the balcony floor. The course was laid 
definitely, the hour of arrival in Yokohama an- 
nounced at the start by the Commandant, whose 
precision of movement is proverbial in the 
French navy. Steadily the course was made, 
our exact position brought to him several times 
during the day. Shikotan, the big island east of 
Yezo, was passed, and the southwest course for 
Yokohama begun. 

L' Alger is three hundred and forty-five feet 
long, and of more than four thousand tons bur- 
then. Wholly built of steel, she carries formida- 
ble guns, and over four hundred men, of whom 
about thirty-six are officers, the commandant, or 
Capitain de VaisseaUy having next below him in 
authority another officer, whose title is Capitain 
de frigate ; next, five lieutenants, and others 
down to petty officers. 

Every morning reports of all kinds are handed 
in to the Commandant ; for instance, that three 
tons of distilled water were made yesterday — 
the capacity for this manufacture being eighteen 
tons, seventeen tons being now on hand; that 
yesterday so many tons of coal were used, leav- 
ing a definite number still in her bunkers. Since 
the Alger can carry many more than now re- 
main, coaling must be done at Yokohama, before 



VOYAGE ON A FRENCH CRUISER 339 

the voyage to Nagasaki. Toward that favorite 
port Captain Boutet says his engines beat joyful 
time, repeating in their throbbing, *' Nagasaki, 
Nagasaki, Nagasaki" in quick iteration, while 
if the orders are to proceed to Korea, sadly, in 
funereal time, the machinery reluctantly grinds 
out " Chemul-po — mul — po " to a dirge - like 
rhythm. 

Reports upon provisions were made daily, — 
the amount of wine remaining ; of tafia, a sort 
of brandy from sugar-cane ; of farina, which in- 
cludes many cereals ; and " divers." Certain fig- 
ures, one day standing eighty-four, meant that so 
many meals (two each day) with wine remained ; 
forty-two (one each day) with brandy, twenty-two 
of cereals, thirty-five of biscuit and thirty-four 
of miscellaneous articles. So it was quite plain 
even to the uninitiated that supplies must be laid 
in at Yokohama, if amounts for three months, 
the Commandant's rule, be carried. 

Illness of any one on board is at once an- 
nounced, — an officer having injured his knee 
was reported, while I sat there, two **petits" 
officers and six men being already ill, — nine in 
all. More interesting was the report of culprits 
which the Captain amiably allowed me to read. 
Three men were undergoing punishment, the 

first "Numero, 51B, Nom, S ; nature de la 

punition, B. justice 138; nombre de jours, 5 ; fin 



340 CORONA AND CORONET 

de la punition, 22 Aout ; motifs, Reclamation mal 
fondee et occasionner du desordre dans la bat- 
terie." Another is punished during five days, 
because of striking "brutalement un deses cama- 
rades sans motif;" and a third for "negligence 
dans son travail et reponse inconvenante," dur- 
ing four days. 

Each watch has a lieutenant in charge, accom- 
panied by a midshipman {aspirant). 

Elaborate tables of exercises are made for 
every hour of the morning and evening, and each 
day of the week, for instance : *' Exercise general 
de manoeuvre," or "Exercise general ou ordinaire 
du canon en alternant successivement " — these 
being from 9.30 to 10.30 on the mornings {jeudi 
et vendredi). 

It was curiously interesting to look over these 
tables, and read that lundi the sailors get out 
their clean duck, look it over and mend it ; mardi 
brings inspection by the captain of "materiel," 
in other words of guns, muskets, metal columns, 
brass, and for assurance, no less, that each man 
in charge of its condition is at his appointed 
post; if everything is satisfactory he has an extra 
ration of wine, — if not, his allowance is reduced 
one ration. Mercrediy boiler inspection, and that 
of knives and forks and other utensils of sailors' 
tables. Eight men at each table have every 
week one of their number appointed to see that 




A "HAIRY AINU 



VOYAGE ON A FRENCH CRUISER 341 

all things shine duly ; he too is rewarded or pun- 
ished according to their condition. 

Jeiidi, one sort of inspection goes on ; ven- 
dredi another, and samedi sees general cleaning 
and brass polishing for a shining dimaiiche. 

The first Sunday in the month the Command- 
ant tests the men with regard to arms and place 
in battle ; the second, one hundred and ten men 
with muskets are landed ; the third, inspection as 
to their condition of four different companies, 
one hundred men in each ; and on the fourth the 
same, with sailors manning boats to show their 
skill in rowing and general alacrity. 

Our own war with Spain has made the public 
more or less familiar with routine on men-of-war, 
through numerous newspaper articles; and we 
know, too, the latent force and splendid energy 
of officers, ready to spring forth at a moment's 
notice in mastery of every situation, perilous or 
desperate ; but life to the commander of a war 
vessel is certainly no sinecure, even in times of 
peace, as shown even in the small bits of routine 
kindly told and shown me by our host, the de- 
lightfully courteous Commandant. 

Indeed, if perfect system makes his own part 
seem full of grace and ease and luxury, he holds 
no less every movement of the huge cruiser and 
its occupants in his hand for every moment of 
every day. Yet his life seemed, in those peace- 



342 CORONA AND CORONET 

f ul waters, as ideal as that of his guests, — beau- 
tiful quarters, perfect service, an elaborate menu, 
an autocrat unquestioned. And better than all, 
the gentle heart, exquisite courtesy, and aesthetic 
taste which make all life worth while. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

HOMEWARD BOUND 

O'er the deep! — o'er the deep! 

Where the whale and the shark and the swordfish sleep, — 

Outflying the blast and the driving rain, — 

Barry Cornwall. 

Gradually the Coronet party again assem- 
bled on their beautiful home. We were the first 
returned wanderers — soon followed by the Cap- 
tain, Mrs. Captain, and others of the "unsci- 
entific contingent," disappointed to have found 
the time too short for reaching Esashi before 
the ninth of August, but partly consoled by the 
beauties of Miyanoshita and Nikko ; last of all, 
the expedition members, unexpectedly detained 
at Esashi several days, as the special steamer 
had been caught in fog on its way northward. 

Much hospitality on board was resumed imme- 
diately, — tiffins and dinners to the Astronomer 
Royal of England, Professor Turner, and Captain 
Hills, Professor Deslandres, Captain Boutet, and 
others ; while dinners on shore to and by the 
various astronomers, interspersed by dancing and 
dining on the men-of-war, followed in quick suc- 
cession. 



344 CORONA AND CORONET 

Professor Turner as extempore poet shone in a 
new light. A guest book having been presented 
for his signature, he retired to a quiet spot on 
the Coronet's deck and soon produced the follow- 
ing impromptu lines : — 

Astronomers we, 

One, two, and three, 

{^Ichiy ni, san,) 

Came to Japan, 

Came for eclipse, 

Sailed in six ships, 

Trained in six trains. 

Suffered from rains. 

Ice, fog, and dew. 

Hot weather too, 

Oft dry with thirst, 

But what was worst. 

Cloud interfered, 

No corona appeared. 

Some compensations. 

Coronet's rations ! 

Coronet's smokes ! 

Coronet's folks ! 

So the best of good wishes, 

And now home, o'er the fishes. 

The "edibles, bibables, and fumibles" of that 
fair craft, deservedly celebrated, are not always 
so immortalized. 

Another interesting entertainment was given 
us by a Japanese friend at the Maple Club ; and 
the famous drive to Mississippi Bay was taken, 
where the rice fields, now in a state of lovely 



HOMEWARD BOUND 345 

ripeness, showed full and graceful heads, bending 
with a nation's nourishment. Some one an- 
nounced in passing, that very poor Japanese par- 
ents sometimes give their children partly cooked 
rice, that by its subsequent swelling their grow- 
ing appetites may, for a time, be kept at bay ! 

Odds and ends of pleasant sight -seeing or 
business were finished ; and suddenly out of the 
intense heat one cool evening descended, sugges- 
tive of approaching autumn, and farewell. 

Mr. Christie departed for England eastward 
on the Empress of China ; Professor Deslandres 
went to Nikko, waiting for cooler days to begin 
his homeward trip by way of India and Suez ; 
L' Alger swung loose from her buoy promptly to 
the moment of Captain Boutet's intention, steam- 
ing impressively away through the breakwater 
and bound for Nagasaki, while farewells waved 
from her bridge and quarterdeck so long as fig- 
ures could be distinguished. 

Native papers published excellent accounts of 
the eclipse, one of them, given below, having 
been translated by a guide, — not the *' famous " 
Okita. So far as I have been able to judge, Jap- 
anese characters give very definite meaning to 
those who read them, but unless translating is 
done by a scholar, it becomes vague in the change. 
This guide used verbal English very well : — 

"The Professor Terao sent by the Imperial as- 



346 CORONA AND CORONET 

toronomical house and among foreigners Ameri- 
can Professor Tod and party, French Parisian 
latitudinal bureau's Mr. Drandol and party have 
established the looking and surveying places 
here. . . . 

"The all expenses to perform this object is to 
be delayed by rich Mr. James as the plan was 
made by private of individual. 

"Also Mrs. Tod being an astoronomer, and 
coming together with Mr. Tod and helped the 
work to take four more Americans, herself as en- 
gineers. 

"Besides the above party the photographer 
Ogawa also followed taking two his men. 

"The machinaries has been invented by the 
same Professor and its principal object is for tak- 
ing to the photograph the present sight of the 
Eclipse by moving the machinary by the action 
of electricity. During the time of eclipse per 
every two minutes 150 pieces as many, and 24 or 
36 as little would be expected to be taken, so 
that altogether 4-500 would have been supposed 
to be taken in the last. 

"The machinary being composed to change 
the direction by the same advancing rate as well 
as the earth revolves and there is no necessity to 
move the machinary's position during the eclipse, 
so much so conveniently arranged having had 
good result on several trial. . . . 



HOMEWARD BOUND 347 

... "In the evening of the 8th the cloud 
got clear up, gradually, and all astoronomer felt 
much easier, but on the 9th from the dawn, the 
small rain began to fall but sometimes the sun 
seemed through the thin part of it, while we 
passed the before noon with a glad and sorrow. 

" About half past one clock the sun began to 
get waned from right side and about half past 
two it reached to the last part from doing so and 
the heaven and land became dark and showed 
quite night sight. As we heard before, the fly- 
ing birds got much astonishment and made a 
great confusion to return to their own nests, and 
showed a special sight. . . . 

" The plan and pain with each surveyors dur- 
ing the past a month being brought such sadful 
result and nobody can tell how much those asto- 
ronomers caused the distress for hopeless end 
like that. 

"Mrs. Tod came from far place to help her 
husbarid's work, and during the time of so marly 
days she has tried to do her best through day 
and night, but the weather prevented her will, 
and she has forgotten herself to cry out, and we 
ought to think about such learned lady's heart." 

During the last days, frantic desire to pur- 
chase final Japanese presents, and by no means 
to forget this, that, or the other article, or person 
at home, surged onward like a tidal wave. But 



348 CORONA AND CORONET 

Yokohama does not shine in comparison with 
Kyoto for shopping, — with marked exception in 
the case of the beautiful vases of Makudsu Kozan, 
sometimes called "the wizard of Ota," whose 
famous kilns are near the city ; and perhaps 
one or two other celebrated places and artists. 
Chinese tailors and shirt - makers were driven 
quite wild by the sudden influx of orders. 
Every man discovered the necessity for several 
full suits, and affable Ah You spent most of his 
available time on the Coronet's deck, untying 
innumerable purple silk handkerchiefs containing 
coats for trying on ; or in pinning them upon the 
happy if perspiring prospective owners below, — 
or in being paddled back and forth in a sam- 
pan. I cannot conceive that he did anything 
else whatever during those last days. He was 
as much a part of the yacht scenery as quarter- 
masters and awning. And a certain shirt-maker, 
Yamatoya, hardly less. Really, because people 
go to Japan to observe an eclipse is no valid 
reason why they should not clothe themselves 
extensively with fine Oriental bargains. But 

" Shining and singing and sparkling glides on the glad day, 
And eastward the swift-rolling planet wheels into the gray." 

A final reception on board the Coronet, never 
so fairylike with flags, lanterns, and groves of 
bamboo, and the day of homeward sailing 
dawned. 



HOMEWARD BOUND 349 

We aimed to clear the moorings at colors, but, 
detained by a number of calls, it was nearly nine 
o'clock when we started, Fuji dimly brooding, 
and slowly swung off as our sails filled, home- 
ward pennant streaming, down the lovely bay. 
Passing the flagship, which has since made such 
quick history for herself, all her white-clothed 
sailors drawn up forward, our friends on bridge 
and quarter - deck were waving caps and ker- 
chiefs ; salutes rang out, colors dipped, the band 
played "Home, Sweet Home" and "Auld Lang 
Syne." And while distance widened, as fresh- 
ening breezes caught added sails, the familiar 
strains of '' Nancy Lee " floated off to us, ethe- 
realized by distance, this delicate compliment 
from the Olympia being the last sound to reach 
the Coronet from Japan's domain. 

This voyage would see no stops at tropical 
islands, no volcanoes, no lawn teas, — but the 
shortest possible great-circle course through the 
northern Pacific to the Golden Gate, a lonely 
waste which with most favoring breezes could 
not be traversed in less than three weeks, and 
was likely to take much longer. A month abso- 
lutely without news of the world, telegrams and 
letters powerless to cheer or annoy, — a month 
alone with immensity. What better chance to 
make acquaintance with that stranger too seldom 
met, — one's innermost self } 



350 CORONA AND CORONET 

At first outer conditions were quite different 
from anticipation, — light winds, then a gale, 
followed by calm, with smooth blue sea; sud- 
denly another fierce blow, all sail lowered, the 
yacht " hove to " with such tremendous seas roll- 
ing that no amount of guards were effective 
to keep dishes on the table or guests in their 
beds; even the Captain landed suddenly on the 
floor one night during the brief interval of sleep 
he allowed himself. For on this homeward voy- 
age he took regular watch, in turn with sailing 
master and mates. 

At the i8oth meridian, picking up a second 
Wednesday and reaching the same hemisphere 
with our friends, the seas too seemed changed, 
running high but in our own direction, slipping 
heavily beneath from the stern, while fine winds 
urged us forward. Many an inspiring day fol- 
lowed, — shaded gray skies with an occasional 
sun-gleam, now and then a streak of rich blue 
showing through layers of soft cloud, — the sea 
gray and green, black in its shadows, breaking 
white on every crest, and hurrying eastward im- 
petuously, faster than we could race. Yet like a 
bird the Coronet flew over the uneasy wastes of 
endless water, lifting her delicate nose scornfully 
above the rollers, and taking few seas aboard. 
Fortunately there was little fog ; but there were 
gorgeous sunsets, and one sunrise was a rose- 



HOMEWARD BOUND 351 

pink pile of cirrus, deepening to ruby. Flying 
meteors at night ; showers chasing each other 
blackly around the horizon ; a great, impressively 
moving waterspout ; porpoises leaping, and our 
old friends the goonies following as usual, flying 
six thousand miles and knowing not fatigue ; 
sometimes a white shag, and a beautiful white 
bird like a pigeon, its little scarlet feet tucked up 
beneath, seeming inclined to alight, but thinking 
better of it ; whales blowing, even lifting their 
huge bulk high above the water — with these 
diversions the days rushed on. 

Another of Big Jim's stories was recalled by 
the whales, — he was no longer on board, hav- 
ing been left behind at Yokohama from circum- 
stances over which he had not full control, so 
that he existed for us but as a memory. His 
tale was to the effect that he once harpooned 
a whale, which immediately set out on a mad 
journey, dragging the boat after him. **Why," 
said Jim, " he pulled us so fast though the water 
that as you looked astern we had left a clear tun- 
nel through the waves a mile or more back." 

A weary little land bird like a song sparrow 
fluttered to the deck one day, — presumably from 
the nearest shore, there the Aleutian Islands, 
more than three hundred miles northward. But 
fatigue, hunger, chill, thirst, or fright proved too 
much for his delicate life. Resting on the waves, 



352 CORONA AND CORONET 

another land bird was passed, which only looked 
at us with bright inquisitive eyes as we sped past 
at ten knots. A squid once came aboard under 
protest. Indignant at his sudden stranding, he 
proceeded to cover the deck with particularly 
black ink. 

One morning the whole sea was alive with 
exquisite spots of radiant blue fire, both on the 
surface and far down into the water. For two 
days this remarkable sight continued, though no 
one was able to identify the startling little crea- 
tures so royally arrayed. They were evidently 
crustaceans, their color thrilling, iridescent, phos- 
phorescent, flame-like. 

Bottles, tightly corked, containing each a 
record of date and exact latitude and longitude, 
were thrown overboard on alternate days, that 
by their drift and possible subsequent landing 
additional data might be secured for the Hydro- 
graphic Office regarding the direction and ve- 
locity of ocean currents. 

Sealskin coats and sea-rugs were much in evi- 
dence on this northern voyage, with brisk walks, 
and afternoon tea by the open fire ; while, dinner 
over, Beethoven and Bach and Chopin filled the 
evening hour. 

Shanties, too, continued, several new ones tak- 
ing their places in the yacht's forecastle reper- 
toire, among them — 



HOMEWARD BOUND 353 

"ROLL THE COTTON DOWN" 

From Yokohama we 're homeward bound, 

Roll the cotton down, 
From Yokohama we 're homeward bound, 

Roll the cotton down. 

2 And soon we '11 be in 'Frisco town, 

3 And as we leave Yokohama behind 

4 We '11 try to make the fastest time 

5 And beat the record as home we go ; 

6 It takes a Yankee yacht to do so. 

7 So pull, my boys, from down below, 

8 For up aloft the sail must go. 

9 I thought I heard the chief mate say 
10 Another pull and then belay. 

Toward the end of September, when superb 
weather came on, with sparkling blue, foam- 
capped sea, high cirrus cloud and northwest 
winds, the Coronet fairly leaped over the waves. 

Showers still haunted the horizon, and one 
evening as the moon emerged from cloud, a per- 
fect lunar rainbow brightened gradually until 
even the secondary bow came forth in shadowy 
color, — an exquisite sight, elusive, fairy-like. 

East winds, cloud, and high seas took their 
turn before the coast was sighted, with reefed 
sails and tons of water sweeping the deck. In 
the night a blow might strike the vessel's bow 
until she trembled, — then the swish and rush 
of chasing water along the scuppers, like a huge 



354 CORONA AND CORONET 

but temporary mill-race. In spite of reefed sails 
we surged onward, gleaming foam thrown off 
from every side, the great, gray, mysterious sea 
heaving and trembling in dim obscurity in all 
directions. 

During one of the last days came the sole cry 
of " Sail ho ! " on the entire voyage, and a bark 
was seen hastening off in rain and mist on un- 
known errands. 

Late in the evening of October ist a faint 
whistle sounded through the fog ; and soon after 
midnight, the weather clearing unexpectedly, 
we were called on deck for a moving spectacle. 
All the stars were out and a waning crescent 
moon; and just ahead, the intense brilliance of 
the Farallones light, our bow pointed directly 
for its radiance. 

No longer could the faithful owner and Cap- 
tain of the Coronet be gayly termed a summer 
yachtsman ; he had fairly earned his title of 
skilled and experienced deep-sea navigator, if 
only from this splendid course through trackless 
waters of the northern Pacific. The two courses 
from San Francisco to Yokohama and back, as 
shown on the chart reproduction, make a pretty 
smooth navigation curve, counting ten thousand 
eight hundred and seventy miles, — the home- 
ward voyage being within fifty miles of the 
shortest possible course. 



HOMEWARD BOUND 355 

Heartfelt congratulations from every one on 
board to the trusty navigator, who bore his 
honors so modestly, — while coffee and sand- 
wiches by the blazing fire at i a. m. celebrated 
this triumphant land-fall. 

Before noon the cabin was buried deep in long- 
stemmed crimson and yellow roses, fragrant 
violets, carnations, maidenhair ferns — the vases 
were too few to hold them ; we lunched and 
dined in a bower. Friends poured in, reporters 
poured in, invitations poured in. The curiously 
brilliant colors upon hats, the peculiar sleeves, 
all so different from things prevailing six months 
before, were oddly interesting. Hills, vividly 
green in April, now showed sober brown. Sun- 
shine was continual. The great cliffs of the 
Golden Gate were more superb than we remem- 
bered them, the miles of pathless white sand- 
dunes as mysteriously, weirdly attractive as be- 
fore. 

But alas, and alas ! good-bys to the Coronet 
were creeping nearer and nearer. What though 
the luxurious private car Buenaventura awaited 
us — farewells to Captain Crosby, faithful An- 
drew, and the sailors, three dips and a salute as 
we left her side extinguished all emotions other 
than unmitigated homesickness, and genuine re- 
gret (on the part of one or two) that we might 
not go with her round the Horn. 



356 



CORONA AND CORONET 



Halfway across to Oakland a last sight of her 
gleaming sides was caught between two islands. 
The ensign and both signals dipped again, three 
times ; her owner and his guests stood with un- 
covered heads as the little brass cannon spoke a 
last good-by ; and then a certain mistiness, not 
wholly of the sea, enshrouded her, the white 
sides grew bluish in morning haze, the big ferry- 
boat ploughed on, and the Japan cruise of the 
Coronet was a thing of the past. 

" Love, good-night, must thou go ? 
When the day and the night need thee so ! 
All is well ; speedeth all to his rest." 

" Taps." 
[Extinguish lights.] 



w^^^^^m 



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CHAPTER XXXIII 

BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, 

His first, best country ever is at home. 

Goldsmith. 

" BiSBEE washed away by a cloud-burst." 
This cheerful headline, in letters much taller 
than necessary, on the first page of the San 
Francisco papers, had greeted our arrival from 
the Orient. Such was the reward of our search 
through the daily press to discover who were the 
actual nominees for President, and how the coun- 
try at large regarded its two choices. Since at 
Bisbee, Arizona, is located a famous copper-mine 
with costly machinery, in which our host, the 
Coronet's captain, had far more than a general 
interest, and since the town is merely an out- 
come of the mine, its houses owned by the com- 
pany, its inhabitants the underground workers 
with their superintendent, doctor, clergyman, 
and librarian, the washing away of his whole 
community was not only rather startling, but 
very moving to the Captain's emotions. 

For a day or two telegrams had failed to get 
through, but at last the welcome message arrived 



358 CORONA AND CORONET 

from the superintendent, " Bisbee safe — no one 
killed." And when, as soon as possible after 
necessary business was finished in San Francisco, 
we found ourselves ensconced in the Buenaven- 
tura, and rolling over the arid deserts of southern 
California, the probable condition of the "works" 
was in the minds of the company almost as much 
as in that of the Captain. 

In the Yuma desert a bush is not an incident 
merely, but an epoch. Miles of sand and reddish 
soil stretch away to barren mountains whose 
rough outline and scarred sides were made beau- 
tiful and ethereal by exquisite shadows and lights 
under a pale-blue quivering atmosphere. The 
thermometer stood at ioo° F. in the car, — a 
rather lower point than usual in this region ; but 
the air was so dry that it was by no means 
unbearable. Dust, however, sifted in through 
double windows, and powdered the little parlor. 

A tempting mirage often appeared, — tantaliz- 
ingly perfect presentments of ponds reflecting 
the hills, even hummocks of grass and rough 
rocks along the shore. Several times we should 
have been sure actual water lay at hand, except 
that it rose and flooded the country around some 
little station perhaps just passed, whose actual 
pitiful dryness had been, five minutes before, a 
sad contrast to the falsely rippled surface of that 
surrounding lake, now lapping gently its wood 



BACK TO A AT ARIZONA COPPER MINE 359 

platform. Perhaps it was some similar appear- 
ance which caused the godfathers of the region 
to name the stations with cruel inappropriateness 
Sweet Water, Bubbling Spring, Running Brook, 
and the like, — pathetic sarcasm. So far as con- 
cerns fertility or moisture the whole scene might 
well have been a landscape in the moon. 

But I trust there are no tramps in that deso- 
lately celestial region. The whole country in this 
earthly counterpart became more and more in- 
fested with that undesirable parasite. A gypsy 
camp, passed toward nightfall with flickering fire 
and picturesque figures about it, was decorative ; 
but tramps cannot, by any possible stretch of 
imagination, be ranked in that category. They 
clung to the trucks beneath, stealing rides of a 
few miles at imminent risk to life and limb ; they 
climbed to the roof of the Buenaventura, and 
were continually dislodged, even from our own 
observation platform. At every station beggars 
whined for food or mioney, the climax being 
reached at Yuma, on the banks of the turbid 
Colorado, where Indians, Mexicans, strange dia- 
lects, and mosquitoes swarmed in the hot even- 
ing air. 

Leaving the Southern Pacific the following 
day, the Buenaventura was attached to a special 
engine for fifty or sixty miles' run (on the Ari- 
zona and South Eastern, a railroad belonging to 



360 CORONA AND CORONET 

the mining company) across a curious country, to 
Bisbee in the extreme southeast corner of the 
territory. The landscape, only less bare than 
the desert, showed yucca and century plants, 
varieties of flowering bushes here and there, and 
brilliant blossoms among the sparse grass, — the 
mesa covered with cattle, and bounded by superb 
purple mountains on every side. 

Riding on the engine was attractive, but upon 
the cow-catcher even more so, — a species of lux- 
ury seldom allowed on through lines. Here, com- 
fortably established on cushions, our feet resting 
upon the timbers joining in a point below for 
convincing argument with obstacles upon the 
track, the whole wide scene was most advanta- 
geously viewed. 

But the track seemed to be, of all the windy 
mesa, the favorite reclining ground of herds, and 
too much slowing down out of regard for our 
safety became necessary, as the cattle calmly 
persisted in remaining until the engine was act- 
ually upon them ; so after a few miles we reluc- 
tantly abandoned our seat on the pilot. Then 
with all lawful notice in shrill whistling, cows had 
to take their chances. Bleaching skeletons be- 
side the track attested an occasional insensibihty 
to warning ; and a ruined town raised despairing 
chimneys to the silent sky, its adobe walls roof- 
less and crumbling, still known as Charleston. 



BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 361 

Barren arxd more barren grew the country, — 
the soil more brilliantly red ; then the track en- 
tered a narrow canon, constantly more contracted 
as high mountains crept closer together. Whiffs 
of smoke appeared, tiny adobe houses straggled 
up steep red hillsides, themselves scarcely differ- 
ent in color ; then tall chimneys and pipes spout- 
ing greenish vapor became frequent, and the car 
stopped. Tiers of houses clung to canon walls, 
winding pathways connecting them wherever 
foothold could be seized, each as rough as the 
washed bed of a rapid torrent ; across an innocent 
looking stream at bottom of the gorge a bridge 
leading to the intact and uninjured works ; an 
enormous smoke-conductor eight feet in diameter 
and seven hundred feet long, lying at a steep 
angle up the mountain and pouring its incessant 
volume of sulphur smoke off, far above the little 
town, — this was Bisbee. No growing thing, not 
even the hardy cottonwoods, can live in the sul- 
phur-laden air, even with the worst of it now car- 
ried off by the great flue. 

This increase in sulphur, though greatly re- 
lieved, brought death to the few shrubs of Bis- 
bee, and the air cannot, even now, especially in 
certain directions of the wind, be called favorable 
to agriculture. 

As the Buenaventura lay comfortably side- 
tracked in the unique village, Mexican women. 



362 CORONA AND CORONET 

picturesque in black rebosa, their beautiful dark 
eyes looking at us curiously from swarthy faces, 
flitted by, and uncounted nationalities among the 
miners passed and repassed. We found later 
that twenty-two nations were represented (nearly 
everything but Mongolian), among them Eng- 
lish, Spanish, Indian, South American, Welsh, 
Cornish, Irish, African, Norwegian, Swedish, 
Russian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese — and that 
fifteen languages were spoken. 

Over seven hundred men are on the pay-roll, 
making, with their families, a population of about 
three thousand, all of whom are personally 
known to the management^ which exercises so 
much kindly authority that Bisbee is an ideal 
mining community. Lawlessness is checked at 
once. A large store supplies at reasonable prices 
all needs, from white silk parasols and sets of 
silver-plated ware — both greatly in demand — 
to Navajo blankets, Mexican saddle-bags, and 
steeple-crowned hats. Two physicians, employed 
by the company, look after the general health ; a 
devoted Welsh clergyman nourishes their souls ; 
a fine library and reading-room are skillfully ad- 
ministered by a graduate of Pratt Institute ; and 
the manager with his family are the good angels 
of the region. 

It is a unique spot, the works with their pipes 
and puffing steam and smoke, coke heaps and 



BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 363 

slag piles the most pervasive element of the nar- 
row canon, while hundreds of feet above, on all 
sides, rise steep mountains, red, barren, mighty. 

The trickling stream can without a moment's 
warning become a devastating torrent. Just be- 
fore the Coronet landed, that cloud-burst in the 
mountains above, of which the papers told, had 
raced down the valley and Bisbee was nearly en- 
gulfed. Water rushed into the Copper Queen 
mine, over the floor of the works, and only 
stopped short of serious damage. No lives were 
lost, as the manager had telegraphed, but in a 
town farther on six or seven persons were killed. 
Hailstones broke half the Bisbee windows, even 
denting and riddling iron roofs. 

Of the sudden, overwhelming power of cloud- 
bursts we were destined to see a thrilling exam- 
ple before the few days' visit was over. 

At first sight one would say, *' Machinery, arid 
precipices, sulphur fumes, no vegetation — ter- 
rible ! " But a fascination not to be explained 
grows upon the stranger, partly understood as 
day after day passes in the little town, — fourth 
in importance and size in Arizona, a territory as 
large as New York and New England together. 

The manager's pretty house stands at the top 
of three or four stone terraces, upon which by 
constant care a thick mat of Bermuda grass was 
green ; oleanders were still living, and a vine or 



364 CORONA AND CORONET 

two over the piazza, while century plants and 
yucca, quite in their native habitat, gave an at- 
tractive air to the pleasant home where so much 
kindly hospitality kept open house* 

Everybody was anxious to see the great mine ; 
and in the afternoon the men of our " party of 
notables," as the Bisbee paper put it, charm- 
ingly arrayed in blue overalls from the store, the 
ladies in brown linen, boarded the elevator, and 
dropped into four hundred and twenty feet of 
darkness. Passing each level, an electric light 
gleamed for a moment. Once at the bottom, 
each guest with a candle investigated in Indian 
file the long corridors cut in the rock, through 
which little tracks are laid for cars to take out 
the ore. On both sides were rivulets of water 
from the late flood, and the procession proceeded 
cautiously, tiny candles flickering hither and 
thither in the turnings, as we followed our 
guides, the glimmer of whose lights, far ahead, 
showed the way. Stepping aside for filled cars 
to pass, while slowly trickling drops from above 
tinkled into pools below, soft white fungus cling- 
ing here and there to the walls, we kept on, see- 
ing occasionally a rare bit of lovely light blue 
crystal, from drippings rich in ore. 

When the Copper Queen was first opened the 
ore was very beautiful, abounding in crystals of 
sapphire blue called azurite, in delicate green, 



BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 365 

and malachite. Very rich, too, it proved, con- 
taining between twenty-five and sixty per cent. 
pure copper. But as mining went on, this partic- 
ular variety grew more scarce, as well as bits of 
native copper. 

But with the more prosaic material now mined 
the Copper Queen is still very rich, and not less 
than thirty tons of pure copper are shipped daily. 
In the ore are found not only sulphur, but traces 
of gold and silver, silica, lead, iron, zinc, anti- 
mony, arsenic, and other materials, all of which 
are blown off, or sent off, or turned into slag, 
except the bits of gold and silver. Never less 
than eight tons of pure copper average from one 
hundred tons of rough ore, while the early blue 
averaged forty, — another rich variety being jet 
black. 

Walking across a plank over an apparently 
bottomless pit, and reaching a chamber too low 
to stand upright, candles held close revealed a 
fairy grotto. The roof and sides were of softest 
green moss like velvet, so delicate that a finger- 
touch brushed it away — and every leaflet of rich 
copper. Another cave, but vast and mysterious, 
was explored. Lofty and full of superb stalac- 
tites like alabaster, small apartments at the sides 
glitteringly splendid in the moving lights — this 
magnificent cavern, calm in the undisturbed re- 
pose of centuries, lay in the mountain's heart un- 



366 CORONA AND CORONET 

known, until a sudden blast accidentally opened 
an entrance to its gloomy wealth. 

Impressive as were all the underground rooms 
and passages, and the ceaseless energy of labor 
above and below, the works at night were in- 
comparably more so. 

After " roasting " in a sort of rotary machine, 
the rough ore is dumped into four great furnaces 
together with a lot of coke (in the largest fur- 
nace two hundred and thirty tons of ore go in 
with fourteen of coke), where it is burned until 
"done," becoming liquid enough to run off. It 
is then two materials, — matte ^ containing copper, 
and useless slag. The latter, being lighter, rises, 
and is led out of the furnace at a higher level 
than the matte, which pours out its red-hot 
stream below. At this stage the matte is about 
fifty per cent, copper, thirty-five per cent, sul- 
phur, and fifteen per cent. iron. 

The matte left to cool is later put through a 
second furnace, from which it pours in streams of 
red-hot liquid flame into the two great Bessemer 
furnaces. In other words it is " Bessemerized " 
for about forty-five minutes, air being forced 
through it by a pressure of sixteen to twenty 
pounds to the inch. The sound is like a hun- 
dred engines together, and the flame, as it shoots 
up and out into the hood for carrying off fumes, 
is all shades of blue and violet and shining yel- 



BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 367 

low, the swarthy figures in attendance knowing 
instantly by the color when all sulphur has gone. 
The enormous, seething caldron is finally tipped 
over, now a white-hot, indescribably glowing 
mass, the " cream " (slag) runs off the top, — a 
stream once more of liquid fire, pours itself into 
great vats on wheels, and is rolled away. When 
all the slag, chiefly iron, is poured off, oblong 
pots on wheels come in on the same track, re- 
ceive the copper stream, now ninety-nine and 
three tenths per cent, pure, tumbling down in a 
cascade of glory, and roll off, — each bar, when 
cooled, weighing three hundred pounds, each 
heat usually yielding thirteen bars. 

Men at work in the glare stick iron spikes 
continually through holes in the back of the 
converter, that passages for air-blasts may not 
become clogged, and when the red-hot or white- 
hot streams light up their faces, while showers of 
sparks fly off in wide-spreading masses, the effect 
is superbly weird. 

The great Bessemers are lined with a sort of 
clay, which is constantly watched, lest it burn 
too thin, — too near the iron. When this hap- 
pens it is wheeled away for the lining to be 
burned out. Six are always in use — two full 
of the copper, and four being burned out with 
radiantly lovely colors. 

But something more, no less magnificent, was 



368 CORONA AND CORONET 

yet to be seen. The slag, in its great iron pots 
on wheels, is run upon a small open train out- 
side, men standing about amid the pots of red- 
hot slag, as spectacular as a scene in a theatre, and 
an engine, the " Little Queen," hastens off with 
it upon a tiny track to the slag-heap, a quarter- 
mile away. The molten material may have 
cooled a bit on the surface during its journey, 
flecks of dark crust dotting the red, but as each 
pot is dumped over the edge, to the valley one 
hundred feet below, it strikes the brink of the 
precipice and breaks or flows apart into a thou- 
sand semi-liquid fragments, which unite again in 
a glowing mass of incandescence, a rushing cas- 
cade of fire. The whole scene about these works 
at night is quite beyond adequate description. 

Horseback rides by day over the barren moun- 
tains are as distinctive in their way. The ani- 
mals are so trained to peculiarities of the region 
that they dash along at full canter up the dry 
beds of streams, along trails where a man could 
scarcely find footing, or straight up open hill- 
sides to gain a short cut, leaving the washed-out 
roads to their own devices. 

Bisbee itself is five thousand three hundred 
feet above the sea, and Juniper Flat, where a mem- 
orable horseback ride was taken, leads one up and 
ever up, seven thousand five hundred feet in 
elevation. Away from the works and their sul- 



BACJ^ TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 369 

phur the air is extraordinarily clear and invig- 
orating, the views extremely grand, over piled- 
up masses of red mountain peaks, with chasing 
lights and shadows and ineffable blue haze. At 
the divide the road descends toward Tombstone, 
and the view down the canon was peculiarly 
beautiful, — even without vegetation of any sort 
except an occasional cactus, or the *' mahogany 
of Arizona" (manzanita), an infrequent juniper 
or cypress, and ubiquitous yucca. 

A solitary Indian on a mule, above us, was 
picking his way still upward. We seemed already 
perched upon the very backbone of the world, 
but a still wider range opened a few feet beyond, 
— far into the sunny Sulphur Springs Valley, 
with a bit of the blue San Jose Mountains of 
Mexico peeping over, and the Cananeas in the 
distance. Lookout Mountain, where scouts or 
sentinels used to watch for Indians during the 
Apache troubles, was sharp and distinct ; Dixie 
Canon and a dozen imposing peaks filled the 
horizon, — a tumble of mountains not unlike that 
seen from Pike's Peak. 

A file of mules laden with firewood from some 
distant canon passed us, driven by Mexicans. 

Coming back to Bisbee, an exciting race with 
a mountain thunderstorm took place between 
elements and riders, — the black cloud and rush- 
ing drops barely behind all the way ; but thanks 



370 CORONA AND CORONET 

to our sure footed-horses in their wild homeward 
gallop, the car was reached just as the first drops 
fell. 

Down the stream from Bisbee, out on the free, 
breezy mesa, cantering without regard to road 
or boundary possesses a new charm all its own. 
There, breathing for the first time seems legiti- 
mately accomplished. Indefinite miles in extent, 
it is inclosed only by blue Mexican mountains of 
San Jose and the Sierra Madres on the horizon, 
the nearer Mule Mountains, and toward the north 
the Huachuca, where an army post is stationed 
among canons of much luxuriance. In the vast 
plain are two small hills, one called Deer Point, 
where not long before a stage was held up by 
cowboys, and two men killed ; farther, the Look- 
out Mountain, already once seen, with its strange 
castellated top. Cattle roamed at will over the 
great plain, now and then succumbing to thirst, 
as occasional bleaching skeletons and skulls sug- 
gested ; coyotes ran ahead of us, jack rabbits 
and *' cotton tail," and flocks of quail, among the 
scanty vegetation. 

Yucca, and the mescal, from which a sort of 
whiskey is made, were the chief plants, but mes- 
quite and bits of fluffy clematis, and more or less 
ocatillo WQXQ seen, — a curiously branching shrub 
covered with closely growing leaves. Settlers 
cut stakes from it for fences, but in the spring 



BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 371 

it suddenly sprouts, and lo ! the most prosaic 
is possessed of a beautiful hedge full of scarlet 
blossoms. A white pillar marks the Mexican 
boundary, sole suggestion of proprietorship in 
the whole wide scene. 

Another race with a storm, majestically sweep- 
ing up and completely hiding the Huachuca 
Mountains in its blue-black shadow, brought us 
back at twilight just in time to escape a fierce 
pelting with hailstones, and to see the fiery cas- 
cade of slag from below, leaping down the pre- 
cipice in whirling sparks and flames, like molten 
lava, in a redly widening stream. 

Once a storm had the advantage, — Arizona 
cloud-bursts were amply illustrated, A short 
ride down the stream, and a dark cloud seemed 
suddenly spread quite over the canon ; a few 
drops of rain fell, and hastily fording the shallow 
brook we rode the horses for shelter into a 
rough shed on the other side. In less than two 
minutes a wild downpour had shut out the sight 
of everything in a wall of descending water, and 
the innocent brook was a mad swirl of turbid, 
angry waves, — a foot, two feet, three feet deep, 
widening as we watched, deepening with every 
breath beyond a possibility of recrossing. The 
shed was slight shelter, open on three sides ; 
hail and rain drove completely through it, while a 
small ravine between shed and house turned into 



372 CORONA AND CORONET 

another rushing stream which in a moment could 
not have been crossed. Fastening the horses 
hurriedly, it was the last possible opportunity to 
jump over the second stream on two or three 
stones still left uncovered. Scarcely had we 
gained the house when the last stone disap- 
peared, and the frail dwelling on a tiny point of 
solid land was almost surrounded by yellow-red, 
deafening, foaming torrents, constantly more furi- 
ous, and closer to the little porch \Yith each mo- 
ment. Rain still came down in sheets — above 
and on every side a watery wilderness — with a 
deafening roar. 

In an hour the sky cleared. In another, the 
smaller stream had shrunk sufficiently to expose 
one or two stones, on which with the aid of a 
board from the good people who sheltered us we 
crossed, proceeding carefully on foot along the 
steep bank of the principal stream, still not less 
than twenty feet wide, finally reaching the rail- 
road bridge at the village and the car. White 
hailstones lay about in heaps, and the canon was 
an imposing sight. 

Washouts detained the Buenaventura for a 
day or two, which started at last with consider- 
able caution and slight speed. The whole South- 
ern Pacific road was so washed and flooded that 
great lakes lay along the track, and the car rolled 
about as if we were once more at sea. The entire 



BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE 373 

country was soft and muddy and spongy. Poor 
and squalid adobe villages on one side — on the 
other for an instant a distant view of the southern 
end of the Rocky Mountains, snow-covered and 
gleaming, and onward from El Paso we rushed, 
as if in very truth the train did 

..." lap the miles 
And lick the valleys up." 

Quaint old San Antonio ; the lush forests in 
parts of Texas with birds still singing and armies 
of butterflies fluttering like brown leaves in au- 
tumnal gales ; woods hung with solemn gray 
moss ; the cotton fields and sugar plantations 
of Louisiana, its low-drooping trees and water- 
plants ; New Orleans with its combination of 
modern cleanliness and beauty, ancient life and 
old French charm ; the great Georgia cotton 
fields all in fluffy white ; the distant Blue Ridge 
and changing foliage of Virginia ; Washington 
-•.welcomes, and more autumnal glories ; farther 
welcomes in New York — with these the story 
of the Amherst Eclipse Expedition draws to its 
close. 

But reunions of the participants have not been 
infrequent, and during the winter following, the 
freight steamer came through Suez with the ap- 
paratus ; the Ainu collections were opened and 
displayed in scenes far different from those 
which witnessed their gathering ; in February 



374 CORONA AND CORONET 

the Coronet reached her nest in Tebo's Basin, one 
hundred and fourteen days from San Francisco, 
completing her fourteen months' cruise of forty- 
five thousand miles. 

The pink velvet has been restored to her guest- 
roora walls, and the entire interior is refitted 
and furnished after her wanderings. One of the 
bottles, thrown overboard from the Coronet on 
the 27th of September, 1896, in latitude 43° N., 
longitude 135° 25' W., came ashore at Ross Bay 
Beach, Victoria, on the ist of April, 1897; and 
his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, in 
recognition of founding the Esashi library and 
services in the cause of education in northern 
Yezo, has conferred upon Professor Todd the 
imperial sake cup with its famous " go-shichi-no- 
kiri" crest in gold, and an accompanying docu- 
ment or diploma. 

The heavens remain ; sun and moon still 
pursue their steady cycle, and the astronomer 
patiently waits and works for still another 
eclipse. His life is a consecration to the best 
and highest. His joy over one new fact wrested 
from sun or star is more than the mere mer- 
chant's over an additional fortune made. He 
must possess the potentiality of a hero, the calm 
of a philosopher, even the uplift of martyrs of 
old. What wonder that he lives in startling 
nearness to the gigantic forces of nature and 



BACK TO AN- ARIZONA COPPER MINE 375 

their inconceivable operation ? That in his clear 
eyes personalities, luxuries, and fashions, hates 
and envies, seem very small, and farther away 
than the stars he loves ? 

He often knows " the finer grace of unfulfilled 
designs ; " but his hope springs perennial. 

In cosmic spaces shadows cannot fail to fall, 
and the solid earth must now and then intercept 
them. Somewhere they will be caught, benefi- 
cently falling through unclouded skies. 





INDEX 



Adams, Governor, 94. 

Adams, U. S. S., 56, 103, 123. 

Adriance, Dr., v. 

Ai (trout), 192. 

Ainu (or Aino), 256, 259, 292 ; belief 
about eclipses, 321 ; collections, 259, 
291 ; dread of death and ghosts, 315 ; 
fishermen, 282; hairy, 159, 244, 255, 
293 ; house, first visited, 266, 267 ; 
legends, 264, 287; men, 268; salu- 
tation, 301 ; women, 268. 

Aioina Kamui (Ainu Adam), 264. 

Akadama (elm), 298, 299. 

Aki province, 223. 

Akkeshi, Yezo, 158, 160, 275, 324. 

Albatross, 30, 33. 

Aldebaran, 127. 

Aleutian Islands, 351. 

Alexander, Professor, vii, 108. 

Alfred " the Great," 23, 132, 185. 

Algaroba (Hawaiian tree), 46, 47, 109. 

L'Alger, French cruiser, 149, 160,235, 
236, 277, 335.. 336, 338, 345- 

Aloha (Hawaiian farewell), 94, 124, 
131- 

Alpha Centauri, 126. 

Amakura (heaven), 138. 

Amherst, 106, 107, 205 ; cheer, 14, 22, 
124 ; College Glee Club, 14 ; colors, 
33) 237 ; preparation for expedition, 
277, 278, 279.^ 

Amur river region, xxi. 

Anatomy of Wit, 327. 

Ancient Mariner, 125. 

Andrew, mate of Coronet, 120, 23 1, 232. 

Antares, 135. 

Aomori, 143, 171, 231. 

" A I " (private car), 15, 23, 32. 

Apache troubles, 370. 

Armstrong, General, 107. 

Astrology (in Hawaii), 54. 

Astronomer Royal of England, 160, 
343- 

Atlantic Monthly, The, viii. 

Atsu (elm fibre), 298. 

Awaji, Inland Sea, 217, 227. 

Baden-Powell, Sir George, xix. 
Baker, Mount, 20. 
Baldwin Home, 117. 
Ball, Sir Robert, 241. 



Bandaisan eruption, 143. 

Baseball in Yokohama, 180. 

Bausch and Lomb, opticians, 278. 

Bear killing, 309. 

Bearskins, 260. 

Beauty of Glazenwood, 26. 

Benten, Japanese goddess, 218. 

Beppu, Inland Sea, 226. 

Bessemers (at copper mine), 368. 

Betelgeux, 127. 

Bisbee, 357, 360 £f. 

Bishop, Bernice Pauahi, Museum, 

53 ; Hall of Science, 107 ; Hon. 

Charles R., 53, 105, 107, io8; Mrs. 

Bernice Pauahi, 53. 
Black Current (Kurosiwa), xxxiv, 137. 
Blonde Frigate, 64. 
Blow-holes, 75, 79. 
Bluff, the, at Yokohama, 140. 
Board of Health (Hawaiian), 112, 113, 

114, 116, 120. 
Boki (Hawaiian chief), 104. 
Bonita (pilot boat), 29. 
Boutet, Captain, 235, 277, 280, 334, 

336, 338, 339,343.345- 
Braemer, S. S., 5. 
Brashear, Mr., optician, 276. 
Buddha, Kamakura and Nara, 209. 
Buenaventura, private car, 358, 359, 

361,373- 
Bund, the, at Yokohama, 140, 149. 
Burckhalter, Mr., astronomer, 160. 
Burke, 254. 

Burton, Professor, viii. 
Byron, Lord, 64. 

Cananeas mountains, 369. 

Cape Horn (of Japan), 234. 

Captain's birthday, .133. 

Cascade mountains, 20 ; tunnel, 18. 

Castle, Hon. W. R., 109; Mrs. S. N., 

109. 
Caves, burials in, 64. 
Celestial Love, The, 229. 
Century Magazine, The, viii. 
Chabot Observatory, i6o. 
Chambers, 241. 

Cha-no-you (tea ceremony), 151, 152. 
Characters, Chinese, 242. 
Chess, 31, 131, 232. 
Chicago, 15. 



378 



INDEX 



Chief's journal, 229. 

China, treaty with, 225 ; war with, 

154- 
Chinese, the, 62 ; compradores, 153 ; 

war, mementos of, 258. 
Chipkommoi (sun), 309. 
Christie (W. H. M., Astron. Royal), 

160, 345. 
Church (Central Union at Honolulu), 

103 ; (Native, at Honolulu), 56. 
Cingalese at Grand Hotel, 179. 
Cleghorn, Mrs., 64. 
Clerke, Miss, 242. 
Clock, driving, 11; glycerine, 12; 

sand, 12. 
Cloisonne, 178, 201, 202. 
Coleridge, 125. 

College, Agricultural, at Sapporo, 272. 
" Colors," 150, 349.^ 
Commutator, electric, 11. 
Cook, Captain, 63, 64. 
Copper, process of purifying, 366, 367. 
Copper Queen mine, 363, 365. 
Cormorant fishing, 188, 1S9. 
Cornwall, Barry, 343. 
Corona, xiii, xiv, xviii-xx, 8-10, 160, 

277,285, 320, 323-25- 
Coronet, 4, 8-10, 13, 24-31, 45, 47, 56- 

59, 103, 134, 182; built when, XX ; 

library, 36 ; log, 6 ; melody, 150, 

349 ; saloon, 3 ; signal letters, 40. 
Costume in Japan, i6q. 
Courlon, Captain Le Bouleur de, 277. 
Crehore, Mrs., viii. 
Crosby, Captain, 2, 24, 355. 
Cross, Southern, 47, 123, 126, 133. 
Cryptomeria (Japanese cedar), 186, 

194. 

Daikichi, 225. 

Daikon (radish), 165, 173, 230. 

Damien, Father, 119. 

Da:n-no-Ura, 224. 

Dashi (float or car), 207. 

Dauntless, the, xxiv, 3. 

Deer Point, 370. 

Deslandres, Professor, 160, 277, 280, 
330, 332, 337»343, 345- 

Detroit, U. S. S., xxxii, 149. 

Diamond Head, Honolulu, 40, 47, 124. 

Dickinson, Emily, 58. 

Dixie Canon, 370. 

Dodge, Mr., 59, 60. 

Dole, Rev. D., 105; Mrs., 49, 50; 
President, vii, 45, 105, 109, 123. 

Dole Hall, 105. 

Doshisha (College), 204, 241. 

Dryden, 68, 97. 

Dumas, Midshipman, 277. 

Dun, His Exc. Edwin, American min- 
ister, 169. 

Dunkards, 22. 

Dutton, "Brother," 118. 

Dutton, Captain, 61. 



Earthquake wave, 251. 

Eclipse, apparatus, 5 ; beginning, 320; 

phenomena, 322 ; selecting station, 

XX, 158; tracks, xiv. 
Elepaio (Hawaiian bird), 86. 
Elm fibre as thread, 298. 
El Monte, 25. 
El Paso, 323. 
Emerson, 125. 
Emerson, Dr., 114, 117. 
Emperor of Japan, 3, 144 ; message, 

331; portrait, 238-39, 284, 331; un- 
veiling of, 331. 
Empress of Japan, 144. 
Era of Meiji, 140. 
Eri (neckerchiefs), 213. 
Eruptions (in Hawaii), 74; (1868), 72, 

75; (1880-81), 73, 75 ; (1892), 74. 
Esashi, 158, 160, 171, 217, 234, 241, 

243, 252, 256, 271, fE. 375. 
Etchuya Inn, 258, 261, 262. 
Expedition, 35, 36, 170, 171, 229, 234, 

236-40. 
Expeditions of different nations, 160. 

Farallones, 29, 354. 

Field, Kate, 63, 97, 98, 100, loi, 103. 

Fiji Islands, 149. 

Fisheries in Yezo, 233. 

Flag-ship U. S. S. Olympia, 149. 

Flathead River, 17. 

Floats, Kyoto, 207, 283. 

Floriponda, 82, 84. 

Flying- fish, 34. 

Folk lore story, 93. 

Formosa, Governor of, i6r. 

Fort Peck Indian reservation, 15. 

Fortune-telling in Yezo, 314. 

Fourth of July at Yokohama, 179. 

Francis, Mr., v, vi. 

Friedlander, Dr., 59. 

Fuji, 137, 138, 140, 161, 182-84, 186, 

268, 349. 
Fujino tea-house, 225. 
Fujita (Hundred Steps), 148. 

Gaisen (dance), 167. 

Gardens, Imperial, 161. 

Gay, 264. 

Geisha (Gifu), 190 ; melody, 191. 

Gerrish, Mr., v. 

Geta (shoes), 155. 

Gifu, 188. 

Go-downs,_246. 

Goerz, optician, 278. 

Gohei (paper prayer), 218, 244. 

Golden Gate (San Francisco), xxxvii, 

28, 349, 355 ; (Uyeno), 174. 
Golden Pavilion, 198. 
Goonies, 30, 32, 33, 39. 
Government, Japanese, 156, 159. 
Great Northern Railway, vii, 14, 16. 
Guest book, 344 ; at Fujita, 147. 
Gundlach Optical Co., 278. 



INDEX 



379 



Hachinoye, 143. 

Hakodate, 159, 170, 171, 237, 243, 253, 
254-57- 

Hara, His Exc'y, Governor of Hok- 
kaido, vii, 233, 275. 

Harte, Bret, 155. 

Hawaii, annexation, 45; bride, 92; 
climate, no; flag, 122, journey, 68 ; 
language, 44 ; leaving, 95 ; lepers, 
III ; melodies, 44, 47, 54 ; minister 
from, 46 ; politics, 45 ; relics, 53 ; 
roadsides, 83 ; sea coast, 65 ; sing- 
ing, 100 ; spirit of modern, 87, 109 ; 
volcanoes, 58; women, 54, 56. 

Hawaiians, 42, 122, 199. 

Hawthorne, 211,287. 

Hayashi, Mr., vii. 

Heijo, 210. 

Helmets of feathers (Hawaii), 91. 

Hemans, Mrs., 241. 

H. Henry VI., 188. 

Henry Gandell's Leap, 75. 

Herbert, 181. __ 

Herod, Mr., vii, 170. 

Hibachi (brazier), 188, 206. 

Hill, President, Great Northern, vii, 14. 

Hills, Captain, 160, 343. 

Hilo, Hawaii, 73, 82-84. 

Himiongami, 213. 

Hiroya, Mr., 290, 335. 

Hohei-kwan, Sapporo, 258, 261. 

Hokkaido, 273, 274, 294 ; governor of, 
233, 275; observations in, 157 ; oys- 
ter beds and fisheries in, 233 ; wealth 
of, 282. 

Holoku (Hawaiian dress), 42, 61. 

Hongo, 250. 

Honolulu, 3, 12, 40-43, 46, 57, 66, 90, 
104, no, 129. 

Horn, Cape, 2, 4, 24, 106, 129 ; of Ja- 
pan, 234. _ 

Horseback riding, 49, 285. 

Horses in Yezo, 286. 

Hosmer, President, Oahu Coll., 107-9. 

Huachuca mountains, 370, 371. 

Hualalai, 95. 

Hula (dancing girls), 75. 

Hundred Steps, tea-house, 147. 

Hurbin, Captain, 277. 

Ideographs, 145. 

leie (vine in Hawaii), 82. 

Inao (god-sticks), 297, 302, 313. 

Independent, The, viii. 

Indians, 16. 

Inland Sea, xxxii, xxxiii, 159, 180, 217, 

229, 241. 
Instruments, 8, 9, 132, 278. 
loi (Hawaiian flower), 8g. 
Ishikawa-maru, 284. 
Ito, Count, 225. 
Iwalani, S. S., 119, 121. 
Iwate, prefecture, 143; branch of Red 

Cross, 144. 



Jacula Prudentum, i8r. 

James, A. C, iii, v, xxiii, 21, 346 ; D. 

W., vi, 3 ; Mrs. A. C, v, 36. 
Janssen, xviii. 
Japanese, 62; alphabet, 2n ; dinner, 

165 ; landscape gardeners, 84, 161 ; 

national anthem, 150, 154, 239, 330. 
Jiji,_i44. 

Jinnkisha rides, 140, 144. 
Jonson, B., 327. 
Juniper Flat, 369. 

K D J B (Coronet signal letters), 40. 

Kaahuraanu, 55. 

Kaawaloa, 63, 97. 

Kabayama, Mr., vii, 205. 

Kabuka, 269, 270. 

Kago (palanquin), 225, 285. 

Kagura (heavenly music), 213. 

Kahuku, Hawaiian town, 72. 

Kahuna (witch doctor), 76. 

Kaiana, Hawaiian chief, 51. 

Kailua, Hawaiian town, 51, 63, 99; 

relics, 94. 
Kaiulani, Princess, 45. 
Kalakaua, King, 3, 55, 74, 95. 
Kalaupapa, old town on Molokai, 120. 
Kalawao, 120. 
Kalo (vegetable), 51. 
Kamaishi, town in Japan, 246, 250. 
Kamakura, Daibutsu at, 210. 
Kamehameha I., 51, 53, 74» 93> 94j 99- 
Kamehameha II., 100; IV., 55. 
Kamogawa, river in Kyoto, 197. 
Kanaka, island native, 62. 
Kanda, Professor, 205. 
Kant, Immanuel, 128. 
Kapapala, Ranch, Hawaii, 71, 89. 
Kapiolani, 70; Queen Dowager, 95. 
Kasuga, temple at Nara, 211, 212 ; god 

of, 215 ; dance at, 212. 
Kealakeakua Bay, 63. 
Keats, 42. 

Keauhou, Hawaiian town, 100. 
Keopuolani, Queen, 55. 
Kewalo reefs, 106. 
Ki (leaves), 90. 
Kidda (Ainu, for star), 309. 
Kilauea, 59, 68, 70, 76, 78, 79, 89, 147. 
Kilauea-iki, 81. 

Kimono (Japanese dress), 142, 148. 
Kimotsuki, Captain, 251, 273, 290. 
Kinkasan, Japanese island, 143. 
Kipling, 126. 
Kitami, province of Yezo, 157, 158, 

160,170, 217, 25s, 285, 335. 
Kiushiu Island, 226. 
Koa, Hawaiian wood, 108. 
Kobe, 159, 180, 182, 183, 184, 22t, 226, 

228. 
Kobo Daishi, 211, 213, 242. 
Kochibe, Professor, 250. 
Konigsberg, xviii. 
Kojiki, oldest Japanese book, 294. 



38o 



INDEX 



Kokuzo Bosatsu, god of the universe, 


Maida, bombardment of, 224. 


2IO. 


Makai (going toward mountains), 72. 


Kompira, temple, 218. 


Makudsu Kozan, famous potter, 348, 


Komyo, Empress, 213. 


Manoa Valley, 48, xo6, 109. 


Kootenai River, 17. 


Manono, wife of Hawaiian chief, 54. 


Korea, 149, 224. 


Maple Club, 161, 168, 


Kori (basket), 185, 196, 262. 


Marlinspike birds, 39. 


Koro-pok-guru, 293, 294. 


Mashika, 266. 


Kotohera, Inland Sea, 218. 


Matsumae, 328. 


Krombi (water insect), 311. 


Matsuri, 205, 283. 


Kuakini, 94. 


Matsuyama, 226, 227. 


Kuny Chipkommoi (the moon), 309. 


Matte (copper), 366, 367. 


Kupapa-u (a corpse), 26. 


Maui, island, 62, 102. 


Kure, Inland Sea, 219. 


Mauka, leaving the heights, 72. 


Kurosiwa, xxxiv, 137. 


MaunaKea,66,89. 


Kuruma, or jinrikisha, 185. 


Mauna Loa, 58, 59, 60, 64, 65, 68, 71, 


Kurumaya (runner), 148, 178, 189. 


74.. 75, 76, 86, 89.^ 


Kushiro, Yezo province, 157. 


Meiji, present era in Japan, 140, 204, 


Kwanko-maru, S. S., 263, 268, 270. 


252. 


Kwannon, goddess, 199, 219. 


Merrill, Mr. (San Francisco), vii. 


Kyogen (a play), 167. 


Miaki Island, 137. 


Kyoto, 183, 194, 197, 200. 


Mikura Island, 137. 




Mila Head, xxx. 


Lahaina, Hawaiian town, 62. 


Millochau, M., 160. 


Laiakanoe hale, Point of Mists, 48. 


Mills, Consul, at Honolulu, 120. 


Lanai, island, 62, 90, 93 ; veranda, 46, 


Mills, President, 107. 


90, 95- 


Mississippi Bay, 140, 344. 


Langley, Professor, xix. 


Mitsui family, 144. 


Lantana, 50. 


Mittau, MM., 160. 


La Perouse Strait, 269, 271. 


Miyabe, Professor, 258. 


Launfal, Sir, iii. 


Miyagi, 143, 248. 


Lava flows, 70, 72, 73, 74- 


Miyajima, 222,223, 224; festival, 223. 
Miyako-maru, S. S., 2i6,>i7, 218, 220, 


Legation, United States, m Tokyo, 


156, 170. 


225, 226. 


Lei (wreath), 44, 46, 47. 62, 75, 90, 91, 


Miyanoshita, 343. 


123. 


Moats, in Tokyo, 176; in Kyoto, 200. 


Lepers, III ; band, 115, 116; expense 


Mokuaweoweo (crater), 58, 68, 74. 


of, 113 ; female quarters, 119 ; horses 


Molokai, Hawaiian island, 40, 62, iii, 


for, 121; marriages of, 112; seclu- 


112, 113, 114. 


sion of, 112; suffering among, 120. 


Mombetsu, Japanese town, 238. 


Leprosy, anaesthetic, 117; evidences 


Monocacy, U. S. S., vi. 


of, lis; first in islands, iii; germ 


Montgomery, 241. 

Morse, Professor, 259, 291, 312. 


found, 122 ; painless, 121 ; how trans- 


mitted, 122 ; white, of Syria, 122. 


Mother Carey chickens, 39. 


Lick Observatory, 160; party, 275. 


Mule Mountains, 370. 


Li Hung Chang, 225. 


Murakami, Mr., viii, 241, 243, 245, 252, 


Likelike, Princess, 64, 74. 


261, 263. 


Liko lehua ( Hawaiian plant), 89. 


Museum at Sapporo, 258. 


Liliha, wife of Boki, 104. 


Mutsu, Count, 225. 


Liliuokalani, 55, 64, 74. 


Mykasa-yama, Nara, 213. 


Longfellow, 216. 


Mynah bird, 85. 


Lookout Mountain, 269, 370. 


Myorin Kwannon, 210. 


Loti, Pierre, 336. 


Myoshinji Temple, 198. 


Lotus, 174, 186, 199, 200, 209. 




Lowell, J. R., Ill, 194. 


Nagara, river at Gifu, 189. 


Lowell, Percival, 155. 


Nagasaki, 339, 345- 


Lukula, a Hawaiian prophet, 76. 


Nagata, Professor, 316. 


Lunalilo, former Hawaiian king, 112, 


Nagoya earthquake, 143. 
Nakadori, 177, 178. 


Lyly, 327. 


Lyman, B. S., 272. 


Nakamura, Professor, 157. 




Nakashima, Inland Sea, 222. 


MacArthur, S. S., 26. 


Namikawa (Tokyo), 178, 179; (Kyoto), 


McGrew, Dr., 103. 


201, 202, 203. 


McNair, Admiral, 151, 179. 


Nara, 209, 210, 243. 



INDEX 



381 



Naruto Channel, 228. 

Nation, The, viii. 

Neesima, Mr., 204. 

Neniuro, province of Yezo, 157. 

Newcomb, Professor, 242. 

New England, 30, 70, 71, 83, 254, 

287. . 
Nichi-Nichi, 144. 
Nikko, 186, 343, 345. 
Nishi Hongwanji, temple, 198. 
Nishimura, 203, 204. 
Nitobe, Professor, 233, 258, 259. 
No dance, 167. 
Nomamura, Inland Sea, 218. 
Norway, xxi. 
Nova Zembla, xvii, xxi. 
Nozawa, Mr., 233, 235. 
Nuuanu pali, 50, 51, 52. 

Oahu, island, 40, 51; college, 104, 105, 

107, 108 ; Glee Club, loS. 
Oakland, 24, 356. 
Obi (sash), 142. 
Observations, meteorological, xxi, 156, 

275. 
Octopus, 33. 
Odyssey, 30, 258. 
Ogawa, Mr., viii, 170. 
Oginohama, 244, 245, 251. 
Ohayo ("good morning"), 281. 
Ohia, tree with scarlet blossoms, 71, 

75. 84. 
Ohiyo, a kind of elm tree, 298. 
Okachi, 248. 

Okhotsk, Sea of, 159, 269, 274. 
Okita, 184, 185, 196, 197, 201, 207,221, 

224, 345- 
Olympia, U. S. S., xxxii, 149, 150, 179, 

181, 182, 349. 
Olympian Mountains, 20. 
Omao (Hawaiian bird), 86. 
Ondo, strait, 219, 220, 222. 
Onivake, 269. 
Onomichi, 219. 
O-o ( Hawaiian bird), 91. 
Osaka, floods about, 243. 
Osgood, 8. 
Oshidoraari, 269. 

Oshima, Mr., viii, 233, 289, 290, 332. 
Ota, "Wizard of," 348. 
Otaru, 233, 243, 252, 255, 261, 266. 
Outlook, The, viii. 
Owl's Head, L. I., 2. 
Oyama, Countess, 176. 

Pacific, 9, 30, 31, 32,40, 43, 136, 137. 

Pahala, 69, 94. 

Papaia (fruit), 56. 

Paris Observatory, 160, 276. 

Patagonia, 6. 

PauahiHall, 105, 108,109. 

Peabody Museum, Salem, 259. 

Pearl Harbor, 48. 

Peeresses' School, 176, 177. 



Pele, goddess of fire, 70, 74, 77 ; cave, 
75; flower, 71, 75, 89; offerings to, 
75 ; defiance of, in 1824, 70. 

Pelican Island, 241. 

Pemberton, J., v, vi, 229. 

Pericles, 88. 

Perry, Commodore, 147. 

PhcEnix Hall, 209. 

Plate-holders, 10 ; endless chains of, 
II, 36,236. 

Plays, old classic, 165, 166. 

Plumeria, 46. 

Poi (national Hawaiian dish), 51, 65, 
66, 88, 91. 

Poillon, Messrs., 2. 

Point of_ Mists, 48. 

Poison, in arrows, 311. 

Polar axis, 11. 

Polaris, 126, 133, 135. 

Polynesia, 53. 

Poronaibo, 295. 

Portland, 22. 

Portuguese, 43, 62, 85. 

Puget Sound, 20. 

Punahou, 104, 105, 107, 108. 

Punaluu, 66, 73, 86, 88. 

Punch Bowl (crater), 124. 

Punkah, 170. 

Queen, 92; Emma, 53, 55; Keopuo- 
lani, 55 ; Liliuokalani, 55, 64, 74. 

Queen Regent, Kaahumanu, 55 ; Ki- 
nau, 55. 

Rainier, Mount, 20. 

Rebosa, 362. 

Reibunshiri, 269. 

Reporters, 21, 142, 355. 

Reverie, 194. 

Revolution, 176. 

Richard barometer, 132. 

Rishiri, 268, 269. 

Roche's Point, Ireland, 2. 

Roentgen rays in corona, 325. 

Renins, 175. 

Rotation of corona, 160, 277. 

Round Top, 196. 

Ruth, Princess, 74. 

Saghalien, 271, 274, 311, 329. 

Sake, 165, 306 ; Sake Cup, 374. 

Sakura (cherry blossom), 179. 

Sakura-maru, 170, 171. 

San Antonio, 373. 

Sandy Hook, 5. 

San Francisco, 2,4, 7, ij, 21,24, 25. 

32, 69, 129. 
San Jose Mountains, 369, 370. 
San-ju-sangendo, igg. 
Sankwan Island, 248. 
San Rafael, 26. 
Sapporo, 159, 170, 233,255; Imperial 

Agricultural College at, 233, 255. 
Saru-sawa-no-ike, pond in Nara, 214. 



382 



INDEX 



Sausalito, 7, 24, 25, 26, 28. 

Sawayama, Mr., 205. 

Schaeberle, Professor, 160. 

Schoolhouse, Esashi, 280, 281 ; old, 
27s, 280; new, 228, 327, 330. 

Scorpion, 126. 

Sea of Japan, 269; of Okhotsk, 159, 
269, 274. 

Seattle, 20. 

Seifu, famous potter, 201. 

Sei-yo-ken, 173, 174. 

Sendai, Bay of, 143. 

Shakespeare, As You Like It, 104; 
II Henry VI., 7, 188, 327 ; King 
John, 31S ; Richard III., 209; Ti- 
tus Andronicus, 24. 

Shanties, 36, 37, 38, 134, 352. 

Shasta, Mount, 22. 

Shiba temples, 174. 

Shijo, 214. 

Shikoku, island in Inland Sea, 227, 
242. 

Shikotan, island of, 338. 

Shimbun (newspaper), 142. 

Shimidzu, 183, 184. 

Shimonoseki, 224, 225. 

Shinto festivals, 205. 

Shirakawa, vi, 10, 243 ; apparatus at, 
325; in 1887, 170. 

Shirasaka-San, 331, 335. 

Shiriya Light, 251. 

Shizuoka, 185, 187. 

Shodoshima, 218. 

Shundoku (treasure box), 299. 

Sierra Madras, 370. 

Signals, communication by, 40, 182. 

Skykomish River, 20. 

Smith, Sydney, 139. 

Smith and Terry, 2. 

Some-San, 331. 

South Sea Islands, specimens, 53. 

Soya, Cape, 234, 255, 268, 271. 

Spectroscopes, 8, 277. 

Spica, 135. 

Spokane, 17. 

Sulphur caves, 81. 

Sulphur Springs Valley, 369. 

Suruga Gulf, 183. 

Suruga-maru, 171. 

Suzuki-San, Vice-Govemor of Hok- 
kaido, 371. 

Tadotsu, 218. 

Tairen-maru, S. S., 243, 244, 245, 251, 

253, 255. 
Takemikatsu Chi-nomikoto (god at 

Nara), 213. 
Tamaiya inn, 188, 193. 
Tamalpais, Mount, 26. 
Tanabe, 147. 
Tantalus, 124. 
Taps, 356. 
Taro, or Kalo, 51. 
Taro-patch (stringed instrument), 47. 



Tartary, Gulf of, 269. 

Tattooing, 303, 304, 311. 

Terao, Professor, 160, 276, 330, 332, 
333, 346- 

Thaxter, Celia, i. 

Thompson, E. A., v, 232, 278, 321 ; 
E. F., 24. 

Ti (or ki) leaves, 90, 

Tidal wdve, 73, 143, 245-49. 

Time bells, 149, 150. 

Times-Herald, Chicago, loi. 

Todd, Professor, v, vi, xxi, 10, 156- 
57, 233-37, 240, 278, 330, 337, 346, 
374- 

Tokaido, 185. 

Tokonoma (recess), 187, 188. 

Tokyo, 143 ; eclipse party, 276 ; Obser- 
vatory, 160 ; Central Meteorological 
Observatory at, 157, 275, 319. 

Tomo, 219. 

Tonakai (deer), 329. 

Toyoura, 224. 

Treasures of the deep, 241. 

Tsuda, Miss, viii. 

Tsugaru Strait, 251, 252. 

Tsukiji, Tokyo, 173. 

Tubi, Inland Sea, 228. 

Turner, Professor, 160, 343, 344. 

Tuscarora Hollow, 250. 

Uchimura, Mr., 205. 

Uji, 209. 

Ukulele, stringed instrument, 44, 47, 

100. 
University at Tokyo, 164, 273. 
Urtica, fibre, 299. 
Uyeno Park, 174. 

Vancouver, 137. 

Volage, H. M. S., 100. 

Volcano House, 76, 77, 79, 81, 82, 89. 

Vries Island, 137, 183. 

Waa (canoe), 63 . 

Waianea mountains, 48. 

Waikiki, near Honolulu, 46. 

Waikolu, 120. 

Wakkanai, 234, 271, 280. 

War, with China, 145, 154. 

Water-lemon, vine, 82. 

Weather, Imperial Bureau of, 156, 

157- 
Wellington, Washington, 19. 
West Africa, 10, 12, 326. 
Wheeler, Mr. (San Francisco), vii. 
Wilkes Scientific Expedition, 60. 
Wright, Dr., Yale Univ., 278. 

Yaami, hotel in Kyoto, 194, 195, 196. 
Yacht Club, New York, 2 ; San Fran- 
cisco, 24 ; Yokohama, 149. 
Yale University, 106. 
Yamatoya, 348. 
Yedo, 143 ; Bay, 139, 181. 



INDEX 



383 



Yezo, II, 157, i7i> 217, 251, 256, 272; 
bears, 244 ; evolved from chaos, 264 ; 
horses, 2S5, 286; shores, 252 ; trav- 
eling to, 241 ; west coast, 255, 265. 

Yokohama, 3, 12, 144, 159. 

Yonsike (an insect), 311. 

Yoritomo, 300. 



Yorktown, U. S. S., xxxii. 
Yoshimitsu, 198. 
Yoshitsune, 300. 
Young, Professor, xix, 97. 
Yuma desert, 358. 
Yusen Kaisha, ofl&cials, 233, 
steamers, 243, 255, 334. 



266; 



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